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Joe Cocker

Woodstock vet Joe Cocker dies at 70 of cancer

Brian Mansfield, and Jerry Shriver
USAToday
Joe Cocker on Feb. 2, 2013 in Berlin, Germany. The singer has died at 70.

Singer Joe Cocker, whose huge, sandpapery voice and wild stage presence thrilled rock audiences for more than 40 years, died early Monday after a battle with lung cancer. He was 70.

Cocker died in Crawford, Colo., where he has lived for the past two decades with his wife, Pam.

The Sheffield, England-born singer was best known for a memorable Woodstock performance in 1969 where he delivered a cover of The Beatles' With a Little Help From My Friends with almost frightening intensity.

The ballad You Are So Beautiful, with Cocker's voice cracking on the final emotional note, was a Top 10 hit in 1975. He reached the top of the charts again in the 1980s with the duet Up Where We Belong, with Jennifer Warnes. The song appeared in the movie An Officer and a Gentleman and won them a 1983 Grammy Award for best vocal performance by a duo or group. It also won best original song at the Oscars and the Golden Globes.

"Joe Cocker is a legendary artist of rock and blues history and yet he was one of the most humble men I've ever met,'' said Edgar Berger, chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, in a statement. "His iconic voice will forever be etched in our memories. Joe will live on in the hearts of millions of fans around the world."

"Joe was one of the most powerful white singers of rock, soul and R&B that we've ever had,'' says Barney Hoskyns, editor of online library rocksbackpages.com. His voice was "one of the defining sounds of the hippie revolution. When he performed live he got completely lost in his music.''

Cocker made his public debut in Sheffield at 12, when his brother Victor invited him onstage to sing with his skiffle band. "My voice hadn't really broken, but I could sing all the Lonnie Donegan songs from the skiffle era," Cocker told USA TODAY in 2012. "My brother and his band loved to hear me sing, because I could do them all in the same key."

Cocker's early '60s band, Vance Arnold & The Avengers, initially missed out on the British Invasion, but he got a second chance during what he called "the Whiter Shade of Pale era." That 1967 Procol Harum hit reinvigorated the British pop scene and led directly to high-profile appearances by Cocker, including his Sunday afternoon set at Woodstock in 1969. Cocker sang several songs that day, including Delta Lady, Ray Charles' Let's Go Get Stoned and Bob Dylan's I Shall Be Released. But his version of The Beatles' With a Little Help From My Friends became a career-igniting performance.

"We just had a good day," Cocker recalled. "We went on real early, and we got a good sound. It took a long time to connect with the audience, though."

Cocker's version of the Beatles' song later regained popularity as the theme for the late-'80s/early '90s TV show The Wonder Years.

In addition to his raspy, one-of-a-kind voice, Cocker also was known for his odd performance style, which included flailing arms and spasmodic body movements. That aspect became fodder for parody during a memorable 1976 appearance on Saturday Night Live, when John Belushi joined him onstage and impersonated him. At the time, Cocker was struggling with alcoholism and financial problems, but the appearance helped give his a career a boost.

The singer frequently cited Ray Charles as his key influence, and he performed You Are So Beautiful with the R&B great on a TV special in the '80s. "It was the most nerve-wracking experience I've ever gone through," Cocker said. Their relationship extended beyond that shared onstage moment. "If I went backstage, he'd always come out. They'd let me in when they wouldn't let other people in, and we'd have little chats. He always knew I was a fan by the stuff I would ask him."

Cocker recorded 22 studio albums, the latest being Fire It Up in 2012. One of his most popular works was the double live album Mad Dogs and Englishmen, recorded on tour in 1970. The touring circus featured more than 40 musicians, including Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge and future members of Derek and the Dominos, and resulted in a concert film and Cocker's third gold album.

He also had hits with the Randy Newman song You Can Leave Your Hat On and When the Night Comes. Rolling Stone ranked him No. 97 on its list of 100 Greatest Singers.

Blues soul rock singer Joe Cocker at A&M Records.

In concert, Cocker relied heavily on cover versions of others' hits, including Feeling Alright, She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, The Letter, Cry Me a River, High Time We Went and Unchain My Heart.

Cocker said he never tired of revisiting his past: "For a long time, like a lot of artists, I said, 'Oh, God, is this all it means? As you get older, you're just going to keep doing the hits?' But, at the same time, there's something to it. There's a reason they were hits. I enjoy seeing how people reflect from the times."

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