With a little help from friends

The main songs of Joe Coker

On December 22, at the 71st year of life, British musician Joe Cocker died. The main talent of a cocker, whose flipped baritones cannot be confused with any other, were fresh readings of other people's songs: in its performance, the composition found not only a new meaning, but often a new life. Medusa represents a selection of the main covers of the great British singer-and one composition of the authorship of the cocker, without which it is impossible to imagine a modern hip-hop.

With a Little Help From My Friends (The Beatles)

The first Caver to bring Joe Cocker Glory was the pretty recycled “With A Little Help From My Friends” The Beatles. Only the melody remained from the song - Coker converted the arrangement beyond recognition, and the Great Jimmy Page called the guitar parties. The studio version of the song with the participation of Page, and almost any live performance - for example, at Woodstock in 1969 , deserve attention.

The Letter (The Box Tops)

The Letter's song was a hit in the original version of the Americans The Box Tops-Joe Cocker only added her blues-rock sound. The Box Tops Age was notable, and the Cocker performed “The Letter” throughout his career, extending the song life for decades. The singer’s American career began with her-it was “The Letter” that turned out to be his first song to fall into the top 10 in the United States.

Unchain My Heart (Bobby Sharp)

Composer Bobby Sharp wrote “Unchain My Heart” in the early 1960s, initially she was part of the repertoire of Ray Charles. In 1987, Joe Cocker returned to her-and did not lose. The song gave the name to the 11th album of the cocker and became the visiting card of the singer. By the end of the 1980s, the cocker itself from a long-haired rocker turned into a charismatic man aged, how we all remembered him.

You are so beautiful (Billy Preston)

The classic romantic song “You are so beautiful” is another excellent example of how the non-obvious hits selected by a cocker ended in the Golden Fund of pop music. In 1977, Cocker worked on the composition of Billy Preston: he slowed her very much, leaving in the song almost nothing but his voice, a quiet piano and (in a living version at the festival in Montrea) Solo on a saxophone.

My fatherʼs son (Conner Reeeves)

The British singer Konner Reeves has not yet been born when Coker had already played at Woodstock. The difference in age did not prevent the cocker for choosing a 1999 album of Reeves “My Fatherʼs Son” - and make it a slow ballad of an elderly person.

SRRY SEEMS to Be the Hardest Word (Elton John)

Among the Coker Coers were completely win -win songs that are almost impossible to spoil. One of them is the “Sorry Seems to bes Word” Elton John, which Coker recorded in 1991 for the British singer’s tribute album.

You Can Leave Your Hat on (Randy Newman)

Randy Newman's song “You Can Leave Your Hat on” would have remained one of the composer’s good but little -known songs, if not for Joe Coker and the film “9 ½ weeks”. In the performance of a cocker (which is difficult to imagine without Kim Basinger, stripping in front of Mickey Rourke in the film by Edian Line) “You Can Leave Your Hat on” has turned into a real anthem of striptease. Perhaps this is the most famous song of Coker in Russia.

Woman to Woman

Coker also wrote his songs - both in co -authorship and independently. One of them befell the same fate as many originals of the compositions for which the artist was taken. Woman to Woman was published in 1972 and did not gain much popularity performed by the cocker. But without it it is impossible to imagine the modern hip-hop-Sample from Woman To Woman, rappers began to be used back in the 1980s, and in 1995, the entry from it formed the basis of one of the main hits of Tupac Shakur California Love .