Two tributes to the late Joe Cocker, who had died earlier in the day of lung cancer, at 70, helped make the seventh annual Hope Concert at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank a truly remarkable evening. First, Jon Bon Jovi, appearing as an unannounced guest, sang “The Letter,” the Box Tops hit that Cocker had a hit with in 1970. Bon Jovi sang with lots of passion (though he didn’t really try to sing like Cocker), and the band used the Wall of Sound arrangement that Leon Russell provided for Cocker’s version. (Bon Jovi actually performed “The Letter” at Hope Concerts in 2011 and 2012, so he could have been planning to perform it even before learning of Cocker’s death.)
Much later in the evening, Southside Johnny led the show’s entire cast through “With a Little Help From My Friends.” Once again, the band did it the way Cocker did it, not the way it was originally done (by The Beatles). And Southside did a good job of singing it like Cocker did, too, and nailed the number’s climactic scream. Continue Reading →
