Joe Cocker - Biography
By Scott Feemster
Though rhythm and blues has been popular in Great Britain since the late 1950's, the arguably greatest British vocalist/interpreter of the art form didn't emerge onto the international scene until the late 1960's. With a voice reminiscent of Ray Charles after gargling with Drano, there is no mistaking a Joe Cocker song, even some 40+ years after he first stepped out on a stage.
John Robert “Joe” Cocker was born on May 20th, 1944, in the working class town of Sheffield, England, the youngest son of a British civil servant. Like many working-class British youth during the late 1950's and early 1960's, he gravitated towards music, especially the blues and rhythm and blues music that was being imported over to England by American servicemen stationed there. Though he loved music, he had to earn a living, and after graduating grammer school, he attended Sheffield Central Technical School, and soon after got a job with the East Midlands Gas Board as a gas fitter. Early on, convinced he could make music like his musical idols, he took up the drums and harmonica, and joined his first band, the Cavaliers, in 1959. In 1961, he moved from behind the drum stool to lead vocals, and soon the band, and he, changed their name to (what they thought) was the more American sounding Vance Arnold and the Avengers. The Avengers released a couple of singles on local small labels and toured regionally around Sheffield with both the Hollies and the Rolling Stones. By 1964, the band were doing well enough that the Decca label offered the Avengers a recording contract, and Cocker took a leave of absence from his day job to concentrate on the group. Cocker shifted some members and took on the new name Joe Cocker Big Blues for the band, and they recorded a version of the Beatles song “I'll Cry Instead”, but the single failed to do anything on the charts. A tour opening for Manfred Mann soon after was also a bust, and on returning to Sheffield, Cocker once again returned to his gas fitting job and broke up the band. In 1965, itching to get out and play again, he teamed up with keyboardist Chris Stainton and formed the Grease Band, a group which also featured the dual guitarists Alan Spenner and Henry McCullough. The band gigged often and built up a name for themselves in the Northern England pub circuit playing a rough and ready mix of their rhythm and blues originals and Motown covers. At one of their gigs, they were noticed by Denny Cordell, a producer who had already had success with the likes of Georgie Fame, the Moody Blues and Procol Harum, and he took Cocker and the band under his wing and convinced them to move to London where they could make a better run at creating a career for themselves. Once they arrived in London in 1967, Cordell set the group up with a residency at the famed Marquee Club, and eventually the band became a favorite on the local circuit and released a single, “Marjorine”, which became a minor hit both in England and the United States.
On the strength of their single and the word-of-mouth about their live shows, Cocker and his band were signed to A&M Records in 1968, and set about recording their debut album, (listed just under Joe Cocker), With A Little Help From My Friends. The album featured not only the members of the Grease Band, but also such notable guest artists as guitarists Albert Lee and Jimmy Page, multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood on organ, drummer Clem Cattini, and the background vocals of Rossetta Hightower, Sunny Weetman and Madeline Bell. Cocker's version of the album's classic Beatles-penned title song, became the first of a long line of cover songs Cocker would gain fame in interpreting, and became so popular that it has threatened to eclipse the original as the definitive recording. “With A Little Help From My Friends” became a #1 hit in Great Britain, and climbed to #68 in the United States. Cocker and the Grease Band toured the U.K. and America, with their most notable performance being at Woodstock, where Cocker's hard-driving back-up band and his impassioned vocals and wild-man performing style nearly brought down the house and brought him to the attention of even more music fans. His performance style of wild arm flailing and grimaces would gain him almost as much attention as his singing did, and would lead years later to a memorable performance on Saturday Night Live, where comedian John Belushi would “battle” Cocker in a spot-on impression of Cocker while he was singing. Many of the songs on With A Little Help From My Friends would go on to be considered classics, including the Traffic cover “Feeling Alright”, “I Shall Be Released” and “Just Like A Woman”, and would form the basis for Cocker's sound for years to come. Cocker followed up his triumph at Woodstock with his next album, titled simply Joe Cocker! (A&M)(1969), the last album that would feature the Grease Band, but his first collaboration with producer/arranger/multi-instrumentalist Leon Russell. Though the sound was similar to his first album, Russell infused Cocker's sound further with elements of Southern and New Orleans soul. The combination worked well, and Cocker scored a hit with the song “Delta Lady”. The album also included more Beatles covers, as well as Cocker's renditions of songs by Bob Dylan, John Sebastian, and Leonard Cohen. Cocker continued his collaboration with Russell by embarking on a nationwide tour across the United States, called the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, with Russell leading a virtual big-band rock orchestra, and was recorded both on tape and on film live at the Fillmore East and released as the double, three-panel gatefold sleeve album Mad Dogs and Englishmen (A&M) in 1970. Even though it was a double album, it became one of Joe Cocker's most popular and best selling releases, and for the early part of the 1970's, was one of the albums, like Carol King's Tapestry or James Taylor's Sweet Baby James, that seemed to be in every home with anyone under the age of 40. Though the album was credited to Joe Cocker, Russell's influence can not be underestimated, and, in many ways, Russell almost overshadowed the singer. Though the album rose to #2 on the Billboard Album Charts, and spawned two hit singles, a version of the Box Tops “The Letter”, and “Cry Me A River”, the grueling tour and the expenses incurred to maintain the tour cost Cocker dearly, and left him nearly broke and in ill health. Much of his bad health was brought on by his excessive drinking and drug use. By 1972, Cocker again turned to his old friend Chris Stainton to lead a band, and set out again to tour. Cocker was so bad off at this point, however, that he would often drink so much as to forget the lyrics to his songs, and often wouldn't eat, thus making him skinnier and sicker. Though Cocker was falling apart, he did manage to record, releasing the self-titled Joe Cocker (A&M) in 1973, (an album of mostly Cocker/Stainton originals), followed by I Can Stand A Little Rain (A&M)(1974), another album of mostly covers, including his version of Billy Preston's “You Are So Beautiful”, which became another Top Ten hit. After that time, though Cocker kept recording and touring throughout the 70's, he wouldn't score another pop hit until the early 80's. Cocker followed I Can Stand A Little Rain with Jamaica Say You Will (A&M) in 1975, the reggae-tinged Stingray (A&M) in 1976, the live collection Live In L.A. (Cube)(1976), which was actually recorded back around 1970, and 1978's Luxury You Can Afford (A&M), a collaboration with famed New Orleans producer/arranger/songwriter Allen Toussaint.
After 1978, Cocker left A&M, and was without a record label until 1981, when he briefly signed to Island Records. Island chief Chris Blackwell set Cocker up at his Compass Point studios in the Bahamas to collaborate with his Compass Point All-Stars, a studio band that included such people as bassist Robbie Shakespeare, drummer Sly Dunbar, keyboardist Wally Badarou and guitarist Barry Reynolds. The resulting album was Sheffield Steel (Island)(1982), an interesting mix of the band's smooth tropical grooves topped with Cocker's trademark gravely vocals. That same year, Cocker recorded, along with Jennifer Warnes, the theme song to the movie An Officer and a Gentleman. “Up Where We Belong” scored Warnes and Cocker a #1 pop hit, and that combined with Cocker's new-found sobriety helped to rejuvenate his career. Cocker was soon signed to Capitol Records, and released Civilized Man in 1984, a collection of covers of both old and new songs. That was followed by Cocker (Capitol)(1986), which included his hit version of the Randy Newman song “You Can Leave Your Hat On”, (as featured in the movie 91/2 Weeks), Unchain My Heart (Capitol)(1987), which featured Cocker's hit version of the Ray Charles classic title track, and One Night of Sin (Capitol)(1989), another collection of cover songs in the same vein as Unchain My Heart, that yielded the top ten Bryan Adams-penned hit “When The Night Comes”. While his career had been rejuvenated, his personal life had also taken a better turn when he married his wife Pam in 1987. Cocker has often credited his wife with helping him to overcome some of his more self-destructive tendencies. Cocker completed two more albums for Capitol, Joe Cocker Live (1990) and Night Calls (1992) before leaving the label. In 1991, Cocker moved with his wife to a ranch in Crawford, Colorado, and has used that as his home and base of operations ever since. Cocker signed on with 550 Music, a new label under the Sony Music umbrella, and released Have A Little Faith in 1994, followed by the Don Was produced Organic in 1996, an attempt by Cocker to strip away some of the sheen of his more recent albums and return to a more stripped-down sound. Both albums failed to connect with the public, and Cocker was soon dropped from the label. Though Cocker wouldn't see some of the pop hits he enjoyed in both the 70's and 80's, he seemed to settle into a comfortable groove of releasing albums of mostly cover interpretations every couple of years and touring sporadically to support them. Cocker released his next album, Across From Midnight (1997) on the CMC International label, then followed with No Ordinary World (Red Ink)(2000), Respect Yourself (Red Ink)(2002), Heart & Soul (EMI)(2004), and Hymn For My Soul (EMI)(2007), all collections of Cocker's interpretations of the works of songwriters he admires. Joe Cocker was awarded an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) award in 2007 by Queen Elizabeth, and celebrated by performing a series of shows in London and his native Sheffield. Cocker has founded the Cocker Kids Foundation charity, and also oversees operations on his Mad Dog Ranch in Colorado.