The English cover artist was regarded as one of the best in the business and was well known for his gritty voice and strangely spasmodic movements on stage. His versions of many popular songs led a lot of people to think that he was the originator of the song, at least until they realized that another band or singer was really responsible for the original track. That didn’t take away from his popularity since he enjoyed a great amount of success throughout his career. Strangely enough there are still people that didn’t realize he was English, which is easy enough to find out if you’ve ever listened to his songs or just look him up on the internet. Of course nowadays Cocker is likely considered one of the older singers of a generation that’s long gone and is considered classic. The singer passed away in 2014, but his contributions to music are still being used.
Here are a few things that Cocker contributed to throughout the years.
5. The Wonder Years – With A Little Help from My Friends
A lot of people that read these might remember the Wonder Years with fond memories. It was one among many shows that showed what real life was like and didn’t bother to sugarcoat anything. The narrative was always interesting and entertaining but the story line was usually something bordering on serious to overly goofy since it was after all about a family with kids of different ages going through different things.
4. An Officer and A Gentleman – Up Where We Belong
Zack Mayo was the son of an enlisted man that was forced to grow up the hard way after his mother passed away and his father had to take custody. Aside from being able to provide a home his father wasn’t worth much, he was drunk all the time and didn’t know how to relate to his son. When Zack grows up he decides that he wants to enlist. He eventually finds out that it’s nothing like what he’d expected.
3. Across the Universe – Come Together
No matter what else is going on in the movie, and there’s a lot to tell the truth, this is a love story plain and simple. It takes a while to really get going since the 1960’s were a giant mess to move through it seems but eventually Jude and Lucy, the two main leads in the film, finally get together only to grow apart and then eventually realize what they had is real.
2. House – Feelin’ Alright
House is the kind of doctor you’d like if you had a very sarcastic sense of humor and absolutely no qualms about being talked down to. Now if you could stand that, then you would also need to be able to stand being talked to like a child and being made to understand that you know almost nothing about your condition, which is when House will tell you just what’s going on in his customary manner.
1. Layer Cake – Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
So basically it’s about the life of a criminal attempting to retire but who must postpone retirement until one final job is done. And of course that leads to complications which leads in turn to more complications and on and on until he’s finally ready to retire and then he’s shot in the back. In other words it’s confusing unless you watch the whole thing.
Joe Cocker was one of the greats no matter what anyone says.
