Raspy-voiced, Grammy-winning singer Joe Cocker, perhaps best known for his cover of the Beatles’ With A Little Help From My Friends and You Are So Beautiful, has died after a battle with lung cancer, his agent said yesterday. He was 70.

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney has led tributes to rock and blues singer. He said: “It’s really sad to hear about Joe’s passing. He was a lovely northern lad who I loved a lot and, like many people, I loved his singing.

“I was especially pleased when he decided to cover With A Little Help From My Friends and I remember him and (producer) Denny Cordell coming round to the studio in Savile Row and playing me what they’d recorded and it was just mind-blowing, totally turned the song into a soul anthem and I was forever grateful for him for doing that. I knew him through the years as a good mate and I was so sad to hear that he had been ill and really sad to hear today that he had passed away. He was a great guy, a lovely guy who brought so much to the world and we’ll all miss him.”

British singer Joe Cocker with his trophy for lifetime achievement at the 48th Golden Camera award ceremony in Berlin, in February 2013. Photo: Maurizio Gambarini/Reuters

Beatles drummer Ringo Starr also paid tribute to his friend, saying: “Goodbye and God bless to Joe Cocker from one of his friends, peace and love.”

Edgar Berger, chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment International, who signed Cocker, said: “Joe Cocker is a legendary artist of rock and blues history and yet he was one of the most humble men I’ve ever met. His iconic voice will forever be etched in our memories.”

Cocker was born in Sheffield, England, and worked as a gas fitter while pursuing a singing career, covering Motown songs in pubs in northern England in the 1960s. He became known as a white soul singer and for his unique stage presence, twisting his body and face into contortions as he sang with his signature husky delivery.

A recording and touring artist in the 1970s, Cocker struggled with alcohol and drug abuse. He had a big hit in 1974 with You Are So Beautiful, co-written with Billy Preston.

His career revived in 1982, singing Up Where We Belong in a duet with Jennifer Warnes in the film An Officer and a Gentleman, which won both a Grammy and an Oscar.

He recorded 23 studio albums, including Fire It Up, his last in 2012.

Cocker lived in Crawford, Colorado, where he and his wife, Pam, had set up the Cocker Kids’ Foundation to support local youth.