Singer Joe Cocker died Monday at 70, after a battle with lung cancer. We take a look back at his life and career.
1944: Joe Cocker is born in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England on May 20.
1959: Cocker joins his first musical group, The Cavaliers, playing the drums and harmonica while maintaining a day job as a gas fitter for the East Midlands Gas Board.
1961: The Cavaliers become Vance Arnold and the Avengers, as Cocker takes over as lead vocalist.
1964: Cocker's first attempt to go solo on Decca Records falls flat and he returns to his old job at East Midlands.
1965: Cocker forms Grease Band with keyboardist Chris Stainton, guitarists Henry McCullough and Alan Spenner and two other musicians. The group tours locally for two years until producer Denny Cordell persuades them to move to London.
1968: Grease Band records its album With a Little Help From My Friends with Jimmy Page and others. The title track, a cover of The Beatles classic, hit No. 1 in England.
1969: Cocker's performance of With a Little Help From My Friends is a high point of the legendary Woodstock festival.
1970: Cocker departs on the "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" tour through the USA. The tour yields a live double album that peaks at No. 2 in the USA and produces two hit singles, The Letter and Cry Me a River.
1970s: While touring, Cocker's dependence on alcohol and drugs intensifies and begins to affect both his performances and his recordings.
1972: Cocker is arrested in Australia for possession of marijuana and forced to leave the country.
1975: Amid personal troubles, Cocker releases one of the biggest hits of his career, You Are So Beautiful, which peaks at No. 5.
1976: During a performance as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, Cocker's muddled and drunken behavior was parodied by actor John Belushi.
1979: Cocker joins the "Woodstock in Europe" tour.
1982: Cocker's career turnaround begins with the success of Up Where We Belong, his duet with Jennifer Warnes featured in the film An Officer and a Gentleman. The track hits No. 1 in the USA and wins a Grammy Award for best pop performance by a duo.
1994: Cocker releases a new album, Have a Little Faith, which hits the top 10 in the United Kingdom.
1994: Cocker performs at Woodstock — as one of the only original 1969 performers to return to the event — where his set receives almost universally positive reviews.
2002: Cocker performs With a Little Help From my Friends with Phil Collins and Brian May at the Party in the Palace concert on the grounds of Buckingham Palace.
2007: Cocker makes an appearance as a minor character in Julie Taymor's Beatles musical film Across the Universe, leading the performance of Come Together.
2008:Rolling Stone releases its list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, featuring Cocker at No. 97.
2010:Hard Knocks, Cocker's 21st studio album, is released.
2012: Cocker's most recent studio album, Fire It Up is released.
2013: In a Rolling Stone readers' poll, With a Little Help From My Friends is ranked the fourth Greatest Live Cover of all time, beating Jimi Hendrix's Star-Spangled Banner and Pearl Jam's Baba O'Reilly.
March 2013: Cocker departs on the European "Fire It Up" tour.
Sept. 17, 2014: Billy Joel refers to Cocker as "a great singer who is not very well right now," at a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York, fueling speculation and rumors about Cocker's health.
Dec. 22, 2014: Cocker dies after battling lung cancer.