Listening to Classics – Joe Cocker and The Box Tops – A 2fer

Thinking of old songs and the classic “The Letter” by The Box Tops popped into my head.  While listening to it, Joe Cocker popped into my head with the version he did with Leon Russell during “The Mad Dogs and Englishmen” tour.  A great contrast, the original from 1967 and a version that claimed this song for eternity by Joe Cocker, done in 1970.  The Box Tops version is a standard here is the band on a TV show and we are playing this song we wrote, whereas the Cocker version is live and filled with what appears to be a very stoned Leon Russell on keyboards and the moves characteristic of Joe Cocker, made famous by John Belushi in his parodies of Joe.

Enjoy, 2fer 1.

Related articles

• Mad Dogs & Englishmen (powerlineblog.com)
• Music Review: Joe Cocker – Mad Dogs & Englishmen: Rarities Edition (blogcritics.org)

Author: John

I enjoy travel, sports, music and anything else that jumps up at me for the moment, which is why I blog. There will be lots of travel posts, pictures and our videos as well as a smattering of sports and humor. I enjoy promoting Canada and am unabashedly a proud Albertan View all posts by John