( CNN ) -- He seemed , at that moment , less like a rock star than like someone who sort of wandered on stage from the multitudes of motley young people jostling and undulating in the meadow . He appeared dazed and confused : a scruffy , spectacularly unglamorous fellow who somehow found himself among the rock ' n ' roll aristocracy who showed up in Woodstock , New York , 45 summers ago to help administer a collective blessing upon a generation . Then Joe Cocker started to sing a song that , it 's safe to say , everybody within hearing range of that stage knew by heart . It was what was widely recognized as the `` Ringo '' number from the already classic Beatles album , `` Sgt . Pepper 's Lonely Hearts Club Band , '' from two years ago . `` With a Little Help From My Friends '' was the kind of catchy , user-friendly ditty that even a stuffy grown-up could love enough to sing along with decades before anyone heard the word `` karaoke . '' Anybody , in other words , could make the song work for them , whether in a shower or a corner bar . Joe Cocker , at that moment , did more than just make it work . He worked that song over , ripping its delicate , amiable stitching apart and transfiguring it into something with more grandeur , tumult and dramatic tension than the Beatles could have imagined . The cameras that captured that transfixing performance for all time stayed on him for practically the entire song , drifting up and down Cocker 's spasmodic form , focusing on his hands as they mimed an invisible instrument wrenching every lick , spin and extended variation he could summon through the vibrant coarseness of his voice . That little ditty Ringo Star introduced to the world became , in Cocker 's fitful , jerking hands , an epic flag waver , a soul-music anthem . Cocker did n't just `` cover '' that song . He conquered it and made it his own . His performance , one of the many peaks of the 1970 eponymous documentary about that festival , `` Woodstock , '' was the first thing most people of a certain age thought of when they heard the news of Cocker 's death at 70 from lung cancer . It was what Monday 's CBS Evening News broadcast mentioned first and foremost when mentioning Cocker 's passing and the film clip accompanied many tweets and posts on social media . Galvanic as that moment was , it was only the beginning of a solid , steady career for Cocker , who scored serial blues-rock hits throughout the 1970s , including `` Feelin ' Alright '' and `` You Are So Beautiful . '' His 1982 duet with Jennifer Warnes , `` Up Where We Belong , '' pretty much capped his string of hits . His gravelly voice and his contortions , however , remained in demand throughout the world , and it says something about his enduring appeal that so many people from different generations say they went straight to those and other tunes to hear that aching , fiery growl once again . Most appropriately , for a man who exploded into being at a long-ago festival devoted to `` peace and love , '' there came a special tweet today from someone wishing the same to Cocker 's spirit . It came from Ringo Starr .
Gene Seymour : Joe Cocker made iconic version of `` With a Little Help From My Friends '' at Woodstock . He says on news of his death , song is what everyone thought of . He conquered it , made it his own . He says it began Cocker 's solid blues career that crossed several generations . Seymour : Today , Ringo Starr tweeted tribute to the man who transformed his signature song .