Atlantic City Weekly

Gravely voiced English rocker/blues balladeer Joe Cocker, who appears at Hilton's Grand Theater this Saturday night, July 4, has had as prolific a career in music as nearly anyone you can name. At age 65 and an almost 50-year veteran vocalist, his touring schedule is still unrelenting. He has 19 live, seven studio and numerous compilation albums to his credit, and he's backed up other luminaries like Leon Russell, Bo Diddley, James Brown, Al Jarreau and others on some of their albums.

Cocker's Billboard-topping duet with Jennifer Warnes "Up Where We Belong" -- a song he initially declined to record -- won both an Oscar (best soundtrack, An Officer and a Gentleman) and Grammy (best pop duo) award in 1983. That song and the vast majority of those Cocker almost singularly made into hits -- and there have been many -- were penned by other people and reinterpreted by him. His latest studio CD entitled Hymn for My Soul, released in May 2008, includes 11 songs by artists Cocker covered, including Stevie Wonder, John Fogerty, Percy Mayfield, George Harrison and Bob Dylan.

Cocker's early influences include Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Beatles, and a song by the latter he sang in 1969 may be what best marks his stardom in the memories of many. As much as anyone might recall (if not from attending than from the 1970 celluloid documentary) Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner," Country Joe McDonald's "Fish Cheer," Santana's "Soul Sacrifice" or any other single song, Cocker's rendition of "With A Little Help From My Friends" was a magnum opus among numbers performed at the Woodstock Festival, which turns 40 years old next month.

That Woodstock appearance helped catapult Cocker into prominence among American audiences. His fame got an additional shot in the arm when, in the second season of Saturday Night Live (in 1976), John Belushi satirized Cocker's almost convulsive Woodstock stage gesticulations in a way that might have ticked off more uptight celebrities, but instead resulted in a hilarious collaboration between Belushi and Cocker on the Dave Mason song "Feeling Alright" in a later SNL episode.

When not touring, Cocker lives with his wife Pam on the Mad Dog Ranch (spun from a nickname Cocker acquired early on) in rural Colorado. Together they run the Cocker Kids' Foundation, a non-profit organization that has funded nearly $600,000 in youth-related programs since 1998. In April of this concert tour, reporter Bill Ervolino of Northjersey.com interviewed Cocker's manager of 22 years, a former studio musician from Los Angeles named Ray Napolitano. It was mentioned during their discussion that Cocker usually declines interviews himself.

"Doing interviews is hard for him because he's so shy," said Napolitano of Cocker. "And then, you know, it's the same questions over and over again. It's been 40 years, but people still ask about Woodstock, even though he was just there for a few hours."