DECEMBER 13, 2007 – At Buckingham Palace, Joe Cocker received the OBE (Order of the British Empire) honor from Queen Elizabeth II, presented to him by Prince Charles. Famous for songs including “You Are So Beautiful” and his cover of the Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends,” Cocker (May 20, 1944 – December 22, 2014) began his career by singing Ray Charles songs in pubs around his hometown of Sheffield, northern England in the early 1960s.Cocker toured with a string of bands, often playing American airbases in Europe, winning fans among the servicemen. The press hailed his first US television performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1969, and that summer, Cocker played to half a million people at the historic Woodstock rock festival in New York state. The ensuing live album “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” remains a Cocker classic, with songs including “Cry Me A River” and “Feelin’ Alright.” Rolling Stone magazine says Cocker’s “gritty, powerful voice remains one of the most distinctive in rock & roll.” A whirlwind US tour after Woodstock left Cocker “exhausted,” according to his own Web site, and reported drug and alcohol abuse came soon after.
