The Woodstock Music and Art Fair got under way 50 years ago today (August 15th). A cover of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends” provided the late Joe Cocker with the title of his debut album and a number-one hit at home in the U.K., but it didn’t fare nearly as well as in the U.S. However, his epic live version of the song at Woodstock, which is in the movie and on its soundtrack album, would become a hallmark of his career. In a 1980s interview, Cocker spoke about its importance to his fans. “With a Little Help From My Friends”
“I daren’t exclude it from my set, they go bonkers if I don’t do it, because it’s almost like an anthem and it says a lot. It’s one of those songs that people do come together around that song, whether it be my version or the Beatle version. The Woodstock version, I think, was exciting just because we got so frenetic at the end of it. It was like we were, as they say, ‘kicking ass’ by the end of that one.”
