Producer Lisa Saltzman announced today the acquisition of film rights to Mark Bego’s upcoming biography Joe Cocker: With a Lot of Help from His Friends which follows the life and career of the Grammy Award-winning hitmaker.
Mark Bego, the author of 68 published books on rock and roll, will release his next book Joe: Cocker: With a Lot of Help From His Friends published by Yorkshire Publishing on November 16, 2023. The biography tells the story of Cocker's life as one of “achieving goals, making disastrous mistakes, and eventually finding happiness and redemption in the eleventh hour.” It is the first biography written about Cocker since his death in 2014.
Joe Cocker, a British blues-rock singer known for his raspy voice, became one of the most distinctive vocalists of his generation. His first album featured a cover of "With a Little Help from My Friends" by the Beatles, which catapulted him to near-instant stardom. Cocker achieved international fame the following year with his passionate live performance of the song at the Woodstock music festival in upstate New York. The song peaked at number one in the United Kingdom in 1968, and it later served as the theme song for the late 1980s American television series The Wonder Years, as well as a staple of his many live performances. His 1974 single "You Are So Beautiful" reached number five in the US and became his signature song. "Up Where We Belong," a duet with Jennifer Warnes that earned Cocker a Grammy Award in 1983, was his best-selling song. Cocker received a Brit Award nomination for Best British Male in 1993. He was honored with a bronze Sheffield Legends plaque in his hometown in 2007, and he was awarded an OBE for services to music the following year. Cocker was ranked 97th among the 100 Greatest Singers by Rolling Stone. In his 43-year recording career, he released a total of 22 studio albums.
“Joe Cocker’s story is one of ambition, talent, attainment, debilitating self-esteem, self-destruction, redemption, and finally joy, set in the most exciting and colorful era of popular music. Joe was a unique talent” stated producer Lisa Saltzman. “As a singer Cocker’s gritty bluesy rock voice and distinctive performances rendered him a true original. He lived a bigger-than-life existence, and the film “Joe Cocker: With A Little Help From My Friends” will show the high points, the low points, the frustrations, crippling battles with his demons, and finally the exhilaration of a life successfully lived.”
Lisa Saltzman is set to produce award-winning filmmaker Elaine McMillion’s forthcoming feature about Mary Harris Jones, Mother Jones. Saltzman also has the feature film and television rights to Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Katherine Elilson’s biography Imelda: Steel Butterfly of the Philippines; the feature film rights to Steven Kaminsky’s best selling biography Anything Is Possible: The Jack LaLane Story; Debby Campbell and Mark Bego’s best-selling biography Burning Bridges: Life With My Father Glen Campbell; and Matthew Hild’s biography, Arrow Through the Heart: The Biography of Andy Gibb. Saltzman was an executive producer of Deception Road starring Thomas Hayden Church and is also an award-winning photographer. Her City Anonymity series has received much attention