The Three Best Songs By Joe Cocker
Posted by: Fusion 45 in Three Best Songs, tags: joe cocker
You Are So Beautiful is the first song I recall hearing by Joe Cocker.
I remember visiting my sister and (future) brother-in-law when they were living in Fredonia, NY, in a trailer park across the road from Lake Erie. They had rented themselves a “doublewide,” she was just beginning her teaching career and they sometimes offered to take me off of Mom and Dad’s hands for a few weeks at a time.
My brother-in-law had a pair of green Koss headphones about the size of basketballs that he’d let me use for late night listening sessions. I remember laying on the floor, in the dark, listening to I Can Stand A Little Rain and being simply floored by the innocence and vulnerability of Cocker’s voice. And the string arrangement. The string arrangement killed me.
I once began to edit together some video footage of my oldest son when he was very little, using that tune as the background. I’ve lost all those tapes since we moved, weirdly enough, but the song reminds me of him.
Hitchcock Railway came later in life and was a tune that got a lot of spins when I was spinning classic rock in the bars in the 1980’s (before the phrase classic rock was invented). I discovered it on a A and M Records compilation and liked to play it between But Anyway by Blues Traveler and the Bob Seger version of Bo Diddley. I used Feelin Alright in the opposite way: to bring the tempo down from Blues Traveler, maybe as a segue from But Anyway to Young Americans.
They are the three best Joe Cocker songs.
Joe Cocker – You Are So Beautiful
Joe Cocker – Hitchcock Railway
Joe Cocker – Feelin’ Alright
Great photo the Robert Altman Archives (c) 1999
Entries (RSS)
solid, solid threesome right there. i will keep ‘hitchcock railway’ and add ‘guilty’ and ’space captain.’
I would have to get the live version of The Letter in there, it’s absolutely manic.
You are so beautiful is the very worst song ever that’s …… EVER been written ! That’s a fact…. ooops it just came on it still sucks as a song I’m out of here ~
Oh, man, nice call on “Hitchcock Railway.” “Feelin’ Alright” is a good one, too, but not in the top three. And unhappily, I’ve never had much regard for “You Are So Beautiful.” I’d substitute “Cry Me A River” and “Darling Be Home Soon.” But what do I do with “Do I Still Figure In Your Life”?
I just cannot stand the off key note at the end of You Are So Beautiful (I prefer the original anyway etc). I’d include With A Little Help From My Friends. Or his Jimmy Webb song I Can Stand A Little Rain/It’s A Sin When You Love Somebody.
Joe Cocker definitely can hit you in that special place…appreciating these “top three song” posts.
With A Little Help From My Friends changed my whole understanding of music. It went from a trite ditty to a rock anthem in Joe’s hands. I’ll go with Cry Me A River. Hitchcock Railway is solid.