Joe Cocker

• Steel Valley Football

  I was just thinking about him the other night when his song came on the radio.
  
  Chances are that if you can name a Joe Cocker song, he borrowed it from another artist. He's basically made a pretty good living out of covering other artists. Don't get me wrong - I like several of his songs (versions), but it just struck me as odd as to how many covers he's done.
  
  Any Joe Cocker fans out there?
  
  
  With a Little Help From My Friends - The Beatles
  
  She Came in Through the Bathroom Window - The Beatles
  
  The Letter - The Boxtops
  
  You Are So Beautiful - Billy Preston
  
  Feelin' Alright - Traffic
  
  You Can Leave Your Hat On - Randy Newman
  
  Unchained My Heart - Ray Charles
  
  
  
  The only song I know of his that he wrote is High Time We Went, which was co-written. He had a big hit with Up Where We Belong with Jennifer Warnes from Officer and a Gentleman, which neither wrote.
• thavoice

  Steel Valley Football;1185937 wrote:I was just thinking about him the other night .

  That sound a little gay, and if you listen to that 5 year old singing in church...you aint goin to heaven
• HitsRus

  

  There are a lot of people who use songs from other songwriters. I never really thought about it. Cocker is so unique, his versions stand on their own, IMO.
• Steel Valley Football

  thavoice;1185945 wrote:That sound a little gay, and if you listen to that 5 year old singing in church...you aint goin to heaven

  
  Neg reps if I could. Don't partial quote me. Not to mention...coming from you, whatever.
• cruiser_96

  

  Up Where We belong!!! What a GREAT song!!!!!!!!!!!
  
  Not really, I guess. But whatever.
• Heretic

  

  Steel Valley Football;1185937 wrote:I was just thinking about him the other night when his song came on the radio.
  
  Chances are that if you can name a Joe Cocker song, he borrowed it from another artist. He's basically made a pretty good living out of covering other artists. Don't get me wrong - I like several of his songs (versions), but it just struck me as odd as to how many covers he's done.
  
  Any Joe Cocker fans out there?
  
  
  With a Little Help From My Friends - The Beatles
  
  She Came in Through the Bathroom Window - The Beatles
  
  The Letter - The Boxtops
  
  You Are So Beautiful - Billy Preston
  
  Feelin' Alright - Traffic
  
  You Can Leave Your Hat On - Randy Newman
  
  Unchained My Heart - Ray Charles
  
  
  
  The only song I know of his that he wrote is High Time We Went, which was co-written. He had a big hit with Up Where We Belong with Jennifer Warnes from Officer and a Gentleman, which neither wrote.

  Cocker's a more extreme example because of what you said, but it's amazing how connected all the artists back then seemed to be with each other. Just about everyone covered tons of stuff by other people to the point where I often find myself looking up songs I like online to see who did the original version.
  
  A couple weeks ago, I was visiting an older friend (around 60 or a bit older) who has a lot of vinyl. I borrowed the debut album by Deep Purple, which has nine songs (or eight if you consider Prelude: Happiness/I'm So Glad to be one song, as Wikipedia does). Of them, four were originals.
  
  Hush was written by Joe South for someone named Billy Joe Royal; at least the I'm So Glad part of "Prelude/Glad" was done by Skip James; Help was done by the Beatles and Hey Joe was done by a bunch of people, although the Hendrix version seemed to be far more influential here than the original Leaves version. One of the more well-known rock bands and their debut album was essentially 50% cover songs. Kind of blew my mind.
• Steel Valley Football

  HitsRus;1185947 wrote:There are a lot of people who use songs from other songwriters. I never really thought about it. Cocker is so unique, his versions stand on their own, IMO.

  
  Very few do it almost exclusively. What Cocker has done it pretty rare, which was my only point.
• thavoice

  Steel Valley Football;1185956 wrote:Neg reps if I could. Don't partial quote me. Not to mention...coming from you, whatever.

  I can partial quote you if I want.
  
  Jackass.
• gut

  Steel Valley Football;1185962 wrote:Very few do it almost exclusively. What Cocker has done it pretty rare, which was my only point.

  Cocker must have been the inspiration for American Idol.
• Steel Valley Football

  Heretic;1185960 wrote:Cocker's a more extreme example because of what you said, but it's amazing how connected all the artists back then seemed to be with each other. Just about everyone covered tons of stuff by other people to the point where I often find myself looking up songs I like online to see who did the original version.
  
  A couple weeks ago, I was visiting an older friend (around 60 or a bit older) who has a lot of vinyl. I borrowed the debut album by Deep Purple, which has nine songs (or eight if you consider Prelude: Happiness/I'm So Glad to be one song, as Wikipedia does). Of them, four were originals.
  
  Hush was written by Joe South for someone named Billy Joe Royal; at least the I'm So Glad part of "Prelude/Glad" was done by Skip James; Help was done by the Beatles and Hey Joe was done by a bunch of people, although the Hendrix version seemed to be far more influential here than the original Leaves version. One of the more well-known rock bands and their debut album was essentially 50% cover songs. Kind of blew my mind.

  Very good post. However, what you're talking about isn't as rare as you think. The Rolling Stones first album had ONE original song on it and before they made an album, they released singles. Something like their first five or six releases were covers and the Stones first two #1 hits were covers of other people's songs. The Beatles did it as well but not to that extreme. Six of the 14 songs on the first Beatles album were covers.
  
  Both groups were young and learning to write and heavily influenced by American R&B. They would eventually do their own stuff almost exclusively, like Deep Purple. Cocker never did grow out of it. Without looking, I'd say 60-70% of Cocker's songs were covers throughout his whole career, but I'm just guessing. Not that you were debating me about it.
• Steel Valley Football

  thavoice;1185988 wrote:I can partial quote you if I want.
  
  Jackass.

  
  I can't post now. I've gotta go help the police check the local bank parking lots for random bags of marijuana. Except I need to call each department to let them know so they don't confuse me doing my civic duty with criminal activity.
  
  You made a bad joke inside a poor post. Hush up and live with it or I'm gonna go bang your mom for pissing me off.
• Apple

  

  Heretic;1185960 wrote:Cocker's a more extreme example because of what you said, but it's amazing how connected all the artists back then seemed to be with each other. Just about everyone covered tons of stuff by other people to the point where I often find myself looking up songs I like online to see who did the original version.
  
  A couple weeks ago, I was visiting an older friend (around 60 or a bit older) who has a lot of vinyl. I borrowed the debut album by Deep Purple, which has nine songs (or eight if you consider Prelude: Happiness/I'm So Glad to be one song, as Wikipedia does). Of them, four were originals.
  
  Hush was written by Joe South for someone named Billy Joe Royal; at least the I'm So Glad part of "Prelude/Glad" was done by Skip James; Help was done by the Beatles and Hey Joe was done by a bunch of people, although the Hendrix version seemed to be far more influential here than the original Leaves version. One of the more well-known rock bands and their debut album was essentially 50% cover songs. Kind of blew my mind.

  Not that what you wrote is odd or abnormal, but are you taking pot?
• queencitybuckeye

  Steel Valley Football;1185962 wrote:Very few do it almost exclusively. What Cocker has done it pretty rare, which was my only point.

  In the rock genre, yes. It's far more common in country music. Not sure why.
• thavoice

  Steel Valley Football;1186014 wrote:I can't post now. I've gotta go help the police check the local bank parking lots for random bags of marijuana. Except I need to call each department to let them know so they don't confuse me doing my civic duty with criminal activity.
  
  You made a bad joke inside a poor post. Hush up and live with it or I'm gonna go bang your mom for pissing me off.

  You must have a full life. While you are out in that parking lot make sure you dont, again, use the services of your lot-lizard sister. That musta been an awkward moment for both of ya.
• Steel Valley Football

  queencitybuckeye;1186033 wrote:In the rock genre, yes. It's far more common in country music. Not sure why.

  Mostly because country music has traditionally used established songwriters. Very few country artists write their own stuff. The writer can then pitch his or her song to various artists or record companies. I remember when Friends in Low Places cames out. Garth and Mark Chestnut released it on an album around the same time. Garths went big and Chestnuts was hardly ever heard from again.
• Steel Valley Football

  thavoice;1186034 wrote:You must have a full life. While you are out in that parking lot make sure you dont, again, use the services of your lot-lizard sister. That musta been an awkward moment for both of ya.

  You tried to troll and failed. Enough that it wouldn't be out of the question to tell you GTFO of the thread. I might even get reps for it.
• Heretic

  

  Apple;1186018 wrote:Not that what you wrote is odd or abnormal, but are you taking pot?

  So far today? Not yet. But 5 p.m.'s gettin' closer!
• Steel Valley Football

  ^^^^
  
  If he's looking through stacks of old classic rock albums, he's def taking pot!
• Heretic

  

  Steel Valley Football;1186075 wrote:^^^^
  
  If he's looking through stacks of old classic rock albums, he's def taking pot!

  Oh yeah! Imagine me at my friends place, going through two milk cartons loaded with records and putting a bunch of them in a "WE GOTTA PLAY THIS SOON!!!!" pile. No sobriety involved in that!
• thavoice

  Steel Valley Football;1186067 wrote:You tried to troll and failed. Enough that it wouldn't be out of the question to tell you GTFO of the thread. I might even get reps for it.

  OOohhh.. Telling me to get off the thread. Pretty intimindating today arent ya!
• Sonofanump

  Best Joe Cocker performance ever.
  
  [video=youtube;dHaA4RePosY][/video]
• Steel Valley Football

  thavoice;1186102 wrote:OOohhh.. Telling me to get off the thread. Pretty intimindating today arent ya!

  I'm sorry, you've misunderstood me. You getting off the thread would be for the benefit of the board. Please go be funny in the basement.
  
  Or, add something relating to the topic.
• Steel Valley Football

  I forgot to post this in the OP.
  
  Jimmy Page played lead guitar on Cocker's With a Little Help From My Friends right before he formed LZ. Thats pretty cool. Think of that big guitar scream on the first note. Most people would be surprised at the list of songs Page played on as a session guitarist.
• hasbeen

  

  When the night comes..favorite joe song
• Steel Valley Football

  pnhasbeen;1186397 wrote:When the night comes..favorite joe song

  I wonder if he wrote it. Also, my buddy just read this and texted me I had the wrong song. Let me look it up.