A big part of Cocker's gift was his interpretive power—he could take anybody's tune and transform it into his own. Be it a gospel-tinged revamp of Randy Newman's mournful ballad "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" or a game of connect-the-dots between Otis Redding and Leonard Cohen as the R&B is turned up on the latter's bittersweet plaint "Bird on a Wire," Cocker didn't cover songs, he re-envisioned them.