Joe Cocker: Joe Cocker! auf LP

The exclamation point really said it all! The unique vocal sound of the former pipe fitter from Sheffield, England, was just that—dynamic and something to get excited about.

With a spectacular career boost courtesy of his appearance at Woodstock in 1969, this album, the second in his debut cycle, features his rousing interpretation of Leon Russell’s “Delta Lady,” a song that would become one of Joe’s biggest hits.

Russell, the Oklahoma-born musician, became Cocker’s musical director and would later orchestrate Cocker’s highly successful and groundbreaking Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour in the year following the album earning its gold status. Cocker created his identity with an earnest yet soulful, tender and explosive vocal style. He took on any song in any genre and, well, made it his own. On Joe Cocker! he revisits the Beatles for “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” and their Eastern philosophy-leaning lead guitarist George Harrison’s sentimental “Something.”

Whether it was gut-bucket soul, like the seminal Lloyd Price song “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” or Leonard Cohen’s evocative, destined-to-become-a-classic “Bird On A Wire,” here we witness how Joltin’ Joe could blast, cry and growl as he interpreted a song in his own humble way—without missing a beat—and with some uncontrollable body language to boot. If mimicry is the highest form of flattery, we have the late John Belushi of Saturday Night Live / The Blues Brothers fame to thank for additional help in bringing Cocker to the masses via TV through his impeccable and maybe a little over-the-top impersonation in the early 70s.

Hip-O Select is proud to reissue this 10-song package the way it first saw the light of day. No frills, no hidden messages, no strings attached…just pure vocal power from the legendary Joe Cocker.