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Joe Cocker

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Joe Cocker (born John Robert Cocker, May 20 1944) is a rock/blues musician.

Joe Cocker

He started his musical career in the city of his birth Sheffield, England in some minor bands at the age of 15: the first band was the Avengers (under the stage name Vance Arnold), then Big Blues (1963), and then The Grease Band (1966). His first single was the first of several The Beatles covers, "I'll Cry Instead".

After minor success in the UK with the single "Marjorine", he entered the big time with a groundbreaking rearrangement of "With a Little Help from My Friends," another Beatles cover, this time from the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, featuring lead guitar from Jimmy Page, which topped the UK singles chart in November 1968 for one week.

In 1969 he appeared at the Woodstock Music Festival [1], and had a second UK hit with the Leon Russell song "Delta Lady". He had further success covering Beatles tunes in 1970 with his version of "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" off their Abbey Road album. Though his British success proved difficult to sustain, he enjoyed several chart entries in the US with "Cry Me a River" and "Feelin' Alright" by Dave Mason. In 1970, his cover of the Box Tops' hit "The Letter", which appeared on the live album Mad Dogs & Englishmen, became his first US Top Ten hit.

In 1969 he was featured on The Ed Sullivan Show. Onstage, he often exhibited a physical intensity as he sang, flailing his arms around and playing an air guitar, ocassionally giving superfluous cues to his band.

In the beginning of 1970s he had problems with drugs including alcohol. He managed to make a comeback in the 1980s and 1990s with several hits, including:

He is sometimes known as "The Sheffield Soul Shouter".

Album discography

  • With a Little Help from My Friends (1969)
  • Joe Cocker! (1969)
  • Mad Dogs & Englishmen (1970)
  • Joe Cocker (1972)
  • I Can Stand A Little Rain (1974)
  • Jamaica Say You Will (1975)
  • Stingray (1976)
  • Greatest Hits (1977)
  • Luxury You Can Afford (1978)
  • Sheffield Steel (1982)
  • Civilized Man (1984)
  • Cocker (1986)
  • Unchain My Heart (1987)
  • One Night Of Sin (1989)
  • Joe Cocker Live (1990)
  • Night Calls (1992)
  • The Best Of Joe Cocker (1993)
  • Have A Little Faith (1994)
  • The Long Voyage Home (1995)
  • Organic (1996)
  • Across From Midnight (1997)
  • Greatest Hits (1998)
  • No Ordinary World (1999)
  • Respect Yourself (2002)
  • Ultimate Collection (2004)
  • Heart & Soul (2005)

Trivia

  • Joe was a friend of the family of Jarvis Cocker of Pulp fame, and babysat for him, although the two are not related.

Reference

  • Joe Cocker: The Authorised Biography by J. P. Bean (2003) ISBN 1852270438
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