Joe Cocker dies at 70

LOS ANGELES — British vocalist Joe Cocker, whose blues-drenched, unfettered performances made him one of the most distinctive rock singers of the late ’60s and early ’70s, died on Monday in Colorado. He was 70.

Cocker had a “hard-fought battle with small-cell lung cancer”, Sony said in a statement. He is survived by his wife Pam.

The Sheffield-born performer blasted onto the international music scene in 1968 with a storming interpretation of the Beatles’ With A Little Help From My Friends. His spasmodic, high-voltage stage style — memorably caricatured by John Belushi on Saturday Night Live — instantly turned him into a top concert attraction.

At the peak of his stardom in 1969, Cocker assembled an enormous performing band called Mad Dogs And Englishmen, with musical direction by keyboardist Leon Russell. The group’s tour resulted in a two-LP live set that reached No 2 in the United States; and the trek was immortalised in Pierre Adidge’s 1971 film.

Cocker, whose party-hearty lifestyle became the stuff of legend in rock circles, tempered his behaviour as his career progressed and he scored a pair of notable ballad hits, including You Are So Beautiful, which rose to No 5 in 1975. His biggest hit was his No 1 duet with Jennifer Warnes, Up Where We Belong, featured in the 1982 movie, An Officer And A Gentleman. The song won the Oscar in 1983 for Best Original Song and earned Cocker and Warnes a Grammy for Best Pop Duo Vocal.

As news of his death spread, floods of musicians and actors paid tribute. Paul McCartney said: “It’s really sad to hear about Joe’s passing. He was a lovely northern lad who I loved a lot and, like many people, I loved his singing.

“I was especially pleased when he decided to cover With A Little Help From My Friends, and I remember him and (producer) Denny Cordell coming round to the studio in Savile Row and playing me what they’d recorded and it was just mind-blowing, totally turned the song into a soul anthem, and I was forever grateful to him for doing that.”

McCartney continued: “I knew him through the years as a good mate and I was so sad to hear that he had been ill and really sad to hear today that he had passed away. He was a great guy, a lovely guy who brought so much to the world and we’ll all miss him.”

The Beatles’ drummer Ringo Starr, who sang the original version of With A Little Help From My Friends, also paid tribute, saying: “Goodbye and God bless to Joe Cocker from one of his friends, peace and love.”

Kiss rocker Gene Simmons tweeted: “Sad to hear Joe Cocker has passed away. Our prayers go out to his family.”

Seventies funk legend Bootsy Collins tweeted: “Another legend has made his mark & left us with the gifts of funky soul in his music. “Mr Joe Cocker” gone at 70 ... ”

Born John Robert Cocker and nicknamed Joe as a boy, Cocker started as a pub performer under the handle Vance Arnold. His greatest vocal influence was American R&B luminary Ray Charles and he admired such bluesmen as Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. In 1966, Cocker began a long on-again-off-again partnership with keyboardist Chris Stainton, whose Grease Band would back Cocker on a number of the singer’s best-known works, including With A Little Help From My Friends.

That single, powered by scorching guitar work from Jimmy Page (who hadn’t yet joined Led Zeppelin), vaulted to No 1 in the United Kingdom and served as a launching pad for his American career. Cocker’s emotion-wracked performance, backed by The Grease Band, was a star-making highlight of the 1969 Woodstock festival and Michael Wadleigh’s attendant film. It was later used as the theme song for the 1980s ABC comedy The Wonder Years.

Cocker’s career threatened to run off the rails in the early ’70s as he took up heroin (although he soon dropped that habit) and had escalating problems with alcohol. Nonetheless, You Are So Beautiful, taken from his album, I Can Stand A Little Rain, burnished his reputation as a soulful hit-producing vocalist. He began to embrace sobriety during a 1976 concert tour and hit his stride with Up Where We Belong.

Although hits eluded Cocker in his later years, he still remained a popular touring attraction until the end of his life. He even made a big-screen appearance in Across The Universe, the movie-musical directed by Julie Taymor that featured the Beatles’ music (Cocker sang Come Together).

A prolific artist, he recorded 23 studio albums and 40 albums and was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 2007 for services to music. AGENCIES