Joe Cocker’s With a Little Help From My Friends is one of those rare debut albums that feels both familiar and totally fresh, built almost entirely on covers but delivered with so much soul and grit you forget these songs weren’t his to begin with. Released in 1969, it finds Cocker reimagining some of the era’s biggest songs from its biggest bands (The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Traffic) and dragging them through the dirt in the best possible way. His voice is raw, raspy, and full of ache and attitude. And when paired with that tight, deeply musical backing band (featuring a young Jimmy Page, no less), these songs don’t just get revisited, they are fully reborn. What made Cocker great through the years is that he didn’t just sing songs, he lived in them, and in doing so made the familiar feel fresh yet again.
Standout Songs: “Feelin’ Alright”, “Just Like A Woman”, “With A Little Help From My Friends”
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