Joe Cocker is an English rock and blues singer who was born in Sheffield, England. His parents are Harold Cocker, a civil servant and Madge Cocker.
He is rated number 97 on Rolling Stones 100 Greatest Singers list. As any good singer who achieves success he has paid his dues. Joe's first singing experience was at age 12 when his older brother invited him onstage to sing during a gig.
In the 1960s the great Ray Charles was one of Joe's main musical influences both in his singing style and stage presentation. If I were asked to classify a couple of real good soul singers of that era it would be Ray Charles and Joe Cocker. When someone sings soul and does it well, you the listener can feel it. This is especially the case with Joe as he moves and rocks his arms and body that just oozes with soul.
In terms of bands Joe's first group was called the Cavaliers. After a year they eventually broke up and Joe went to become an apprentice gasfitter. But as was his destiny he still pursued a career in music.
After that he formed another group called Vance Arnold and the Avengers. They mostly played pubs in Sheffield but got a gig to support the Rolling Stones for an appearance at City Hall.
Cocker released his first single for Decca records. It was a cover song of the Beatles' "I'll Cry Instead." He then teamed up with Chris Stainton to form The Grease Band. After moderate success in the US he recorded another cover of a Beatles song "With a Little Help from My Friends." The thing that propelled this hit was that they had it rearranged to suit Cocker's style of singing and one music festival that went down in history as one of the most memorable..
Joe had played various venues but the one that really accelerated his singing career was when he and the Grease Band played at the original Woodstock Festival in August of 1969 in New York. And by the way, when speaking about "With a Little Help from My Friends", when he sang the song at Woodstock the crowd seemed to adopt it as their anthem.
In the 1970s he formed a new group called Mad Dogs and Englishmen. This was a large group of musicians with some notable names. Leon Russell was the pianist and band leader, and Claudia Lennear and none other than a lady that knows a lot about singing, Rita Coolidge were the backup singers. He also released an album I Can Stand a Little Rain which charted well most notably due to a single on it which was Joe's cover of a Billy Preston song "You Are So Beautiful." Over the course of several years a lot of Joe's recordings have been cover versions of other artists' songs but he had good success with them as he adapted them to his unique singing style.
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