- Read more: Joe Cocker's classic songs
Joe Cocker, whose intense, gritty voice won him wide acclaim that spanned both rock and blues, has died at age 70.
Cocker, who started off playing to small audiences in pubs in his native England, made a breakthrough when he jolted the 1969 Woodstock festival by playing the Beatles' With a Little Help From My Friends - one of the rock era's most successful covers.
Cocker, whose singing was accompanied by a flailing of his arms that led uninitiated audiences to wonder if he had neurological problems, later topped the charts with the love ballad You Are So Beautiful.
"He was without doubt the greatest rock/soul voice ever to come out of Britain," his agent, Barrie Marshall, said in a statement announcing his death on Sunday evening.
"Hugely talented - a true star - but a kind and humble man who loved to perform," he said.
"His iconic performance of With a Little Help From My Friends, continued to thrill audiences across the decades. He was simply unique," he said.
Cocker's label, Sony Music, said that he was suffering lung cancer.
The Yorkshire Post, the singer's hometown newspaper in England, said that he died in the US Rocky Mountain state of Colorado where Cocker and his wife settled in a small town two decades ago.
Cocker moved to Colorado as he gradually cleaned up his act after a notoriously hard-partying youth, when his love for alcohol and drugs brought fears that he would be the latest rock star to die young.
In one incident, Cocker and his bandmates were arrested in Australia in 1972 for possession of marijuana and then ordered to leave the country due to a hotel brawl, triggering a debate in Australia about its drug laws.
At Woodstock, the carnival of counter-culture, Cocker took the stage twice and also performed a cover of Ray Charles' post-addiction song Let's Go Get Stoned.
Cocker's popularity came amid the rise of what was known, sometimes pejoratively, as "blue-eyed soul" of white artists embracing a musical style identified with African Americans.
Asked in an interview last year with Britain's Guardian newspaper on how he feels the spirit of the blues, Cocker said: "It's an emotion - a way of carrying an emotion. It's a very simple format but I find myself leaning that way as I get older."
Cocker's other well-known hits include 1982's Up Where We Belong, an impassioned duet with Jennifer Warnes that won a Grammy and featured in the movie An Officer and a Gentleman.
He also sang Ray Charles' Unchain my Heart, notably at the mammoth 1988 concert at London's Wembley Stadium that drummed up support to free South Africa's anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela on his 70th birthday.
More surprisingly, Cocker performed in 1989 at the inauguration of US president George H W Bush.
Cocker later said that he did not side politically with the Republican president but had hoped - unsuccessfully - that Bush would pardon him for US-based drug offences.
Cocker's image as a voice of his generation was enhanced when The Wonder Years, a popular US television show launched in 1988 that looked back fondly at the 1960s, chose his version of With a Little Help From My Friends, as its theme song.
The song was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and Cocker was knighted by the Queen.
"Goodbye and God bless to Joe Cocker from one of his friends - peace and love," Beatles drummer Ringo Starr wrote on Twitter.
Kiss rocker Gene Simmons tweeted: "Sad to hear Joe Cocker has passed away. Our prayers go out to his family."
Bette Midler said: "Goodbye to Joe Cocker. There was never anyone like him, and there never will be again. The one of the Sounds of an Era passes."
House and Blackadder actor Hugh Laurie tweeted: "Oh god. Joe Cocker. The world now feels like a two-legged table."
Fellow rock singer Bryan Adams tweeted: "Joe Cocker has died. RIP my good friend, you were one of the best rock singers ever."
Classic rock songwriter and musician Peter Frampton said: "So sad to hear of Joe Cocker's passing. 'You are so beautiful' is both Joe and Nicky Hopkins piano at their very best. Gonna play it now RIP"
Irish pop star Ronan Keating said: "So sad to hear of Joe Cocker passing. What a brilliant and unique voice. Peace"
And British comedian Ricky Gervais also paid tribute, saying: "RIP the mighty Joe Cocker."
But despite the acclaim, Cocker never made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an omission that some fans saw as a snub.
Billy Joel, performing With a Little Help from My Friends, at New York's Madison Square Garden in September in a tribute to the ailing Cocker, said he was "amazed" that the singer was not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
