Gold (Joe Cocker)

Joe Cocker's Gold is a two-disc career retrospective. While only so much content can fit on two discs when that career goes from the 1960s to the 2000s, Gold does an admirable job of selecting songs. Key hits and album tracks are included here. Of course, some hits are omitted due to space constraints, but as a Cocker overview or introduction, this works well.

Several years ago, I would have told you quite assuredly I would not be buying Joe Cocker's work. I was only familiar with such tracks as his versions of "You Are So Beautiful" and "With a Little Help From My Friends," which I disliked at the time. (They're still not amongst my favourites to this day, but I can at least tolerate them.) However, as I heard more of his music, I found that, given the right material, he could produce great results. Such songs as "High Time We Went," "Midnight Rider," "Feelin' Alright," and "Delta Lady" sparked my interest enough that, given a nice coupon incentive from Borders recently, I finally took the plunge and invested. I'm glad I did. There are more tracks here I like than do not. Highlights include "I Can Stand a Little Rain," "The Jealous Kind," "Civilized Man," and "You Can't Have My Heart." Remakes which I found surprisingly good, given how much I love the originals and thereby making it very hard to compare, are here in the form of U2's "One" and The Lovin' Spoonful's "Darling Be Home Soon."

I once made the mistake of writing off blues-rocker Cocker, but I'm glad that has been rectified.

Tracks:
1. Feelin' Alright
2. With a Little Help From My Friends
3. Delta Lady
4. She Came In Through the Bathroom Window
5. Something
6. Darling Be Home Soon
7. The Letter (live)
8. Cry Me a River (live)
9. High Time We Went
10. Black-Eyed Blues
11. Midnight Rider
12. Put Out the Light
13. I Can Stand a Little Rain
14. You Are So Beautiful
15. I Think It's Gonna Rain Today
16. The Jealous Kind
17. Fun Time
18. I'm So Glad I'm Standing Here Today (with The Crusaders)

Disc 2
19. Sweet Little Woman
20. Many Rivers to Cross
21. Up Where We Belong (with Jennifer Warnes)
22. Civilized Man
23. Shelter Me
24. You Can Leave Your Hat On
25. Unchain My Heart
26. When the Night Comes
27. Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
28. Night Calls
29. Now That the Magic Has Gone
30. Summer in the City
31. Have a Little Faith in Me
32. Sail Away
33. Tonight
34. First We Take Manhattan
35. You Can't Have My Heart
36. One