The world lost a music icon today. Legendary British blues singer Joe Cocker passed away at 70 after a lengthy battle with lung cancer. Perhaps best known in pop culture as the man who sang the The Wonder Years theme song, Cocker’s soulful cover of the Beatles’ “Little Help from My Friends” propelled him to musical infamy in the late 60s and 70s. You might know him for his other contributions to the musical zeitgeist, including “You Are So Beautiful,” “Unchain My Heart,” and “Feeling Alright.”
With his celebrity pretty firmly established by the mid-70s, Cocker was a musical guest on Season 2 of Saturday Night Live, giving one of the show’s most memorable musical performances when John Belushi joined him on stage for a mind-melting version of Cocker’s hit funky/blues tune “Feeling Alight.” Despite being a huge Cocker fan, Belushi is basically lampooning the rockstar in an oh-so-perfect way, which makes the performance one of the best in the Saturday Night Live‘s history. What a good humored dude. Like, could you imagine the type of shitstorm that would go down if Keenan tried to imitate Kanye in homage while Yeezy was performing on SNL?
They just don’t make rockstars with a sense of humor like they used to.
RIP, Cocker. Enjoy the great gig in the sky.