In summary, John Belushi and Joe Cocker were friends and colleagues. Belushi parodied Cocker on "Saturday Night Live" and Cocker responded by appearing on the show to perform with Belushi. They both died young, Belushi at just 33 and Cocker at 70.
He had a top 10 hit in 1975 on the aching ballad "You Are So Beautiful," with his voice cracking on the final emotional note and won his first Grammy Award in 1983 for his "Up Where We Belong" duet with Jennifer Warnes, which was the theme of the movie "An Officer and a Gentleman."
Cocker, who received an Order of the British Empire in 2011 for his contribution to music, released 40 albums and continued to tour after the hits dried up.
He was known for an intense, twitchy stage presence where his arms would flail and face contort as he wrung notes from his raspy voice. When he performed on "Saturday Night Live" in 1976, Belushi parodied him onstage, exaggerating his movements by flipping to the ground. It was a clip seen as widely as Cocker's own performances.
70 is way too young. The live Mag Dogs album was and still is a very special album to me, I think it really captured the spirit of what the 60's strived to be, that and Festival Express. They both occurred I think within a year or two of each other and then that was it, the nail in the coffin being Altamont. In any case, here's a few of my favs for the eulogy. RIP Joe.
