John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote this song.
The Beatles recorded it a year earlier, but never released it as a single. The Beatles were so impressed with Cocker's version that they sent him a telegram of congratulations and placed an ad in the music papers praising it.
This was recorded in 3/4 time - a waltz. The Beatles original version was in traditional 4/4 time.
Jimmy Page played guitar and BJ Wilson from Procol Harum played drums on the track. The soul singers Madeline Bell Reeves, Rosetta Hightower, Patrice Holloway, and Sunny Wheetman provided backing vocals.
This song has topped the UK charts on three occasions: Cocker's version, then in 1988 Wet Wet Wet hit #1 again on a double A-sided charity single, and in 2004 Sam & Mark from the 2004 UK Pop Idol brought it to the top again.
Denny Cordell produced the album with an early-career Tony Visconti helping out. According to Visconti, Cordell knew the song had huge hit potential and got very particular about the mix, causing a delay. Cocker's record company decided the song needed to be issued right away, and with Cordell out of the country (England), Visconti was suddenly tasked with mixing it. He did the job, and by the time Cordell returned to England, the song was climbing the charts. Visconti ended up mixing the entire album, and even played guitar on one of the tracks: "Bye Bye Blackbird."
Sesame Street did a parody of this called "With A Little Yelp From My Friends." It was performed by "Moe Cocker," a Cocker Spaniel. This version of the song is about a dog who yelps for help when he can't find his bone or scratch a flea.
Cocker sang his devotional version of this song at Woodstock, giving his career a huge boost. The 25-year-old Cocker, wore a tie-dyed T-shirt and was drenched in sweat throughout the performance, securing his reputation as an entertainer who would give his all on stage. This performance appears in the Woodstock documentary.
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Suggestion credit:
Bertrand - Paris, France
Joe Cocker is only one of two acts who performed at Woodstock to have had a UK #1 hit. The other was Jimi Hendrix, who had a chart topper with "
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)."
The Joe Cocker version was the theme song to the TV series The Wonder Years, starring Fred Savage. The show ran six seasons, from 1988-1993. When it was added to Netflix in 2011, it was with a different version of the theme song, as Cocker's version wasn't cleared.
Securing rights to the theme song and most of the other nearly 300 songs that were used in the show was a challenge, but in 2014 the series was finally released on DVD, with most of the songs - including the original theme - intact.
When Cocker died in 2014 at age 70, Paul McCartney issued this statement regarding his version of this song: "It was just mind-blowing, totally turned the song into a soul anthem, and I was forever grateful for him for having done that."
Cocker brought this to the Woodstock stage again when he appeared at Woodstock '94.
In 2002, Cocker performed this with Phil Collins (on drums) and Queen guitarist Brian May for Party at the Palace, a celebration at Buckingham Palace in honor of the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
This was used on The Simpsons in the 1994 episode "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song" in a scene spoofing The Wonder Years.
Cocker had four female backing singers on the studio version of this song, but when he performed it at Woodstock, his all-male Grease Band did the backup vocals, singing way up high. This was a watershed moment for
John Gourley of Portugal. The Man, who after watching film of the performance, decided it was OK to sing in falsetto. The band's 2017 album containing their hit "
Feel It Still" is titled
Woodstock.
While trying to get Cocker's classic primal scream on "With A Little Help From My Friends," Denny Cordell had the singer belt it out a whopping 25 times, risking a vocal cord explosion. "I never saw anyone be so cruel to another human being,"
Tony Visconti recalled to The Guardian.
