With A Little Help From My Friends Songs Ranked
With a Little Help from My Friends is the debut album by singer-songwriter Joe Cocker, released in late April 1969. It was certified gold in the US and peaked at number 35 on the Billboard 200. In the UK, the album charted in May 1972 at number 29 when it was re-released as a double pack with Cocker’s second LP Joe Cocker!. The title track was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and originally performed by the Beatles on the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; it has been inducted into both the Grammy Award Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Cocker’s version was the theme song to the television series The Wonder Years during the 1980s and 1990s. Here are all of With A Little Help From My Friends songs ranked.
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10. Feelin Alright
“Feelin’ Alright” starts out with this funkified mix of Latin-rock percussion and piano and Cocker’s full on gospel energy along with his soaring backup singers. The album opens with a total barnstormer – a cover of Dave Mason’s brilliant Traffic tune “Feeling Alright” – recently used to devastating effect in the 2013 Denzel Washington drunk-pilot movie “Flight”.
9. Change in Louise
“Change In Louise” is the first original co-written with Grease Band stalwart Chris Stainton who adds Bass, Piano and Organ to almost the whole of the album (and the two non-LP B-sides).
8. Just Like a Woman
“Side 1 ends with a powerful rendition of Dylan’s “Just Like A Woman” – our Brummy’s voice hurting like an open wound (he does Bob proud). The mood is quickly taken back to the more melancholy though with the first of the two Dylan covers ‘Just Like A Woman’. Again this for me is a better version than the original or any others before or since.”
See more: Joe Cocker Albums Ranked
7. Sandpaper Cadillac
“The third and final Cocker/Stainton track ‘Sandpaper Cadillac’ is probably the weakest cut on the album but is still no back number and probably suffers a little from its positioning although it is actually quite difficult to see where else it could have been placed.”
6. With a Little Help From My Friends
“Joe Cocker announced his presence to the world with one hell of a debut album. With A Little Help From My Friends is a strong and confident record that in many ways is peerless and impossible to classify. It’s not 100% rock; it’s not 100% blue-eyed soul; it’s not 100% blues; it’s not 100% pop. It is, I suppose, an amalgamation of all of these genres.”
5. I Shall Be Released
“I Shall Be Released” became a freedom anthem and is reckoned as one of ‘the’ great Dylan interpretations. Both of the bonus tracks are Joe Cocker/Christ Stainton compositions – with the non-LP “Something’s Coming On” being the prize – a fantastic tune with great Jimmy Page axework throughout.”
See more: Joe Cocker Songs Ranked
4. Do Not Let Me Be Misunderstood
“‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ is another track which has been recorded by more than its fair share of people since originally being written for Nina Simone in 1964. More often connected with Eric Burden and The Animals than Cocker he still manages to put his mark on it.”
3. Do I Still Figure in Your Life
“The second half of the album kicks off with the highlight for me ‘Do I Still Figure In Your Life’ is literally drenched in feeling and dripping in emotion. It remains for me Cocker’s greatest ever vocal performance and still sends a shiver down my spine even after thirty odd years of listening to it.”
2. Marjorine
“‘Marjorine’, a second Cocker/Stainton composition is almost a throw back to the psychadelia of a couple of years earlier but is again infuriatingly catchy and provided Cocker with his first US hit.”
1. Bye Bye Blackbird
“‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ has been recorded by even more people than the opener but yet again Cocker can lay claim to having laid down the best modern day version. Helped in no small part by a blinding solo from Jimmy Page and some pretty authentic twenties style backing vocals from Madelaine Bell and Rosetta and Sunny Hightower.”