Hallelujah

"Hallelujah"
Single cover
Song by Leonard Cohen from the album Various Positions
Published	1981
Released	December 1984
Recorded	June 1984
Genre	Soft rock, folk, gospel
Language	English
Length	4:36
Label	Columbia
Writer	Leonard Cohen
Producer	John Lissauer
Various Positions track listing
"Night Comes On" (4) "Hallelujah" (5) "The Captain" (6)

"Hallelujah" is a song by singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen originally released on the 1984 studio album Various Positions; it achieved little initial success but has gone on to become famous and frequently covered.

"Hallelujah" has now surpassed "Suzanne," to become the most-covered Cohen song.^[1] The song's first notable cover was by John Cale in 1991 and has since been performed by almost 200 artists in various languages.^[1] It has been the subject of a BBC radio documentary and been featured in the soundtracks of numerous movies and television shows.^[2]

Musical composition and lyrical interpretation

John Cale "Hallelujah" cover excerpt John Cale selected the verses by Leonard Cohen which most covers have since followed. First recorded by Cale in 1991 for the Cohen tribute album I'm Your Fan. Jeff Buckley "Hallelujah" cover excerpt From the album Grace released in 1994. In 2007, Sony BMG rereleased the album (subtitle "The Legacy Edition") with a live music video of the song. Allison Crowe "Hallelujah" cover excerpt Different in stylistic approach, Allison Crowe's single-take recording, from Tidings, released in 2003, is among a new generation of interpretations. Rufus Wainwright "Hallelujah" cover excerpt Rufus Wainwright, recorded a version similar to Cale's, also using piano, and was used on the soundtrack album of Shrek: Music from the Original Motion Picture.

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"Hallelujah", in its original version, is a song in triple meter which evokes the styles of both waltz and gospel music. Written in the key of C major, the chord progression follows the lyric "it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, and the major lift": F, G, A minor, F.^[3] Cohen's original version contains several biblical references, most notably evoking the adulterous stories of Samson and Delilah from the Book of Judges as well as King David and Bathsheeba: "you saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you".^[3]

Since his original studio album version, live performances by Leonard Cohen almost invariably include the final song verses not performed by many others. Numerous artists mix lyrics from both versions, and occasionally make direct lyric changes such as Rufus Wainwright singing "holy dark" and Allison Crowe singing "Holy Ghost" rather than "holy dove".

Cohen's lyrical poetry and his view that "many different hallelujahs exist" is reflected in wide-ranging covers with very different intents or tones of speech, allowing the song to be ""melancholic, fragile, uplifting [or] joyous" depending on the performer:^[3] John Cale, the first person to record a cover version of the song, promoted a message of "soberness and sincerity" in contrast to Cohen's dispassionate tone;^[3] Jeff Buckley's cover is more sorrowful and was described by Buckley as "a hallelujah to the orgasm";^[3][4] Allison Crowe interpreted the song as a "very sexual" composition that discussed relationships;^[3] Rufus Wainwright offered a "purifying and almost liturgical" interpretation to the song;^[3] and Guy Garvey of Elbow anthropomorphised the hallelujah as a "stately creature" and incorporated his religious interpretation of the song into his band's recordings.^[3]

The song is played in the key of C Major at a tempo of 56bpm. The vocal range is E4-A5^[5].

Cover versions

In recent years "Hallelujah" has been performed by a large number and broad range of artists, both on recordings and in concert. RIAA, CRIA, ARIA and IFPI statistics alone show that, prior to late 2008, more than five million copies of the song sold in CD format. Different interpretations of the song may include different verses - of the 80 verses Cohen wrote.

Cohen has said, in a CBC Radio interview, April 2009, that he finds the number of covers of his song "ironic and amusing" given that when he first wrote the song, his record company wouldn't put it out. However, he now thinks the song could benefit from a break in exposure: "... I was just reading a review of a movie called Watchmen that uses it and the reviewer said - 'Can we please have a moratorium on Hallelujah in movies and television shows?' And I kind of feel the same way...I think it's a good song, but I think too many people sing it."^[6][7]

John Cale

Welsh singer-songwriter John Cale, formerly of The Velvet Underground, recorded a cover version of "Hallelujah", which appeared on the 1991 Leonard Cohen tribute album I'm Your Fan and on his 1992 live album Fragments of a Rainy Season. Cale's version featured vocals, piano, and lyrics Cohen had only performed live. Cale had watched Cohen perform the song and asked him to send the lyrics.^[8] Cohen then sent Cale fifteen pages of lyrics. As Cohen described it, Cale then "went through and just picked out the cheeky verses."^[9]

Cale's version forms the basis of most subsequent performances, including some of Cohen's performances later in his life. It was also the version used in the 2001 movie Shrek (though it did not appear on the soundtrack).^[3][8]

Jeff Buckley

American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley, inspired by Cale's earlier cover version, recorded one of the best-known cover versions of "Hallelujah" for his 1994 studio album, Grace. Buckley, not wholly satisfied with any one take, recorded more than twenty takes, three of which producer Andy Wallace took and mixed to create a single track.

In 2004, Jeff Buckley's version was ranked #259 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".^[3] In September 2007, a poll of fifty songwriters conducted by Q Magazine listed "Hallelujah" among the all-time "Top 10 Greatest Tracks" with John Legend calling Buckley's version "as near perfect as you can get". The song posthumously charted twice in 2008 for Buckley: the song topped Billboard's Hot Digital Songs in April 2008 following a performance of the song by Jason Castro on American Idol (It was the oldest song to accomplish the feat.) and was the Christmas 2008 number-two single in the UK, the top spot being occupied by Alexandra Burke's cover.

On July 12, 2009, Jeff Buckley's version was ranked #3 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time list, and certified platinum by the RIAA on April 22, 2008.

Rufus Wainwright

Although John Cale's version was used in the film Shrek itself, his version did not feature in the movie soundtrack album, Shrek: Music from the Original Motion Picture. Canadian musician Rufus Wainwright recorded a version similar to Cale's, also using piano and the same arrangement, and his version was used on the soundtrack album.^[8] The Shrek soundtrack, containing Wainwright's cover, was certified in the United States as double platinum in 2003 by achieving sales of over two million copies.

k.d. lang

k.d. lang recorded a version of "Hallelujah" in 2004 on her album Hymns of the 49th Parallel. She has several times been chosen to sing the song at major events, such as the Canadian 2005 Juno Awards^[10], where her rendition "brought the audience to its feet for a two-minute ovation."^[11] Lang also sang it at the 2006 Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on the occasion of Cohen's induction into the Hall of Fame.^[12] Of that rendition, Cohen's partner, singer Anjani Thomas, said: "After hearing k.d. lang perform that song at the Canadian Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2006 we looked at each other and said, 'well, I think we can lay that song to rest now! It’s really been done to its ultimate blissful state of perfection'."^[13]

"Hallelujah"
Single by Alexandra Burke
from the album Overcome
B-side	"Candyman" "Without You"
Released	17 December 2008
Format	CD single, digital download
Recorded	2008
Genre	R&B, gospel
Length	3:39
Label	Syco
Writer(s)	Leonard Cohen
Producer	Quiz & Larossi

Alexandra Burke

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Alexandra Burke, the winner of the fifth series of British reality television show The X Factor, released a condensed cover version of the song as a prize for her victory. It reached the Christmas Number One spot on UK charts on 21 December 2008. The music video features footage from The X Factor, connecting the lyrics to the story of Burke's victory.^[14]

The release of Burke's cover created interest in the previous versions of the song, including a Buckley fan campaign to take Buckley's cover to the top of the Christmas chart in order to deny Burke the top spot.^[15][16] The campaign was fuelled by Jeff Buckley fans' dislike of The X Factor's commercialism and the song's arrangement,^[17][18] as well as a desire by this contingent to introduce younger music fans to Buckley's version.^[19] Burke herself was not enamoured of the choice of song, remarking "It just didn’t do anything for me".^[18]

Burke's version broke a European sales record after selling over 105,000 digital downloads in just one day, breaking the previous record set by Leona Lewis. It sold 576,000 copies in its first week, becoming the fastest selling single released by a woman in the UK, to become the Christmas number one, while Buckley's cover came second and Cohen's original version came thirty-sixth. On 28 December, 2008, the UK Singles Chart listed Burke's version as #1 biggest selling single of the year.^[20][21], with NME announcing sales of over 1 million copies since its release.^[22] Burke's version of the song is the seventh best-selling download of all time in the UK. To date, it has sold 1.3 million in the UK alone. ^[23]

Alexandra's "Hallelujah" has been featured on Now That's What I Call Music! 72 and Now That's What I Call Christmas Tunes 2, as well as on her debut album, Overcome.

Other cover versions

Bob Dylan was among the first to perform Cohen's song in concert with his earliest noted performance being in Montreal on July 8, 1988.^[24] Canadian singer-songwriter Allison Crowe recorded a critically-praised version of "Hallelujah" in a single take for her 2003 album Tidings. Crowe also performed the song for a national television special broadcast annually across Canada each year from 2003 through 2008.^[25] Other notable artists who have covered Hallelujah include Brandi Carlile, Willie Nelson, Alter Bridge (Myles Kennedy) and Bono. Bono's version, which is mostly performed as spoken-word, was included in “Tower of Song,” an all-star tribute to Cohen in 1995. Bon Jovi has covered the song several times in concert, including on their 2008 Live at Madison Square Garden DVD, and Cohen rates their version as his favorite.^[26] Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins recorded a classical-crossover version, for her 2008 album Sacred Arias.^[24] Also Imogen Heap, English acclaimed songwriter and singer covered the song.^[27]

In 2006 the Norwegian quartet of Askil Holm, Espen Lind, Alejandro Fuentes, and Kurt Nilsen, released a cover of the song which became the fastest-selling hit ever in Norway, reaching double platinum (100 K+ sales) in two weeks and eventually selling over 250,000 units (8 x platinum). The YouTube clip of them performing this song is the most viewed cover of Hallelujah ever as of September 15 with over 14.6 million views. ^[28] In 2008 Kate Voegele recorded a cover version of the song for her album that reached the top 100 Billboard charts and top 100 Pop charts. It also reached #53 in the UK shortly after airing of an episode of One Tree Hill on which the song was featured.^{[citation needed]} Lisa Hordijk, the winner of the 2009 Dutch X-Factor series released a version of 'Hallelujah' as her debut single. The song went double platinum and remained at the top of the Dutch charts for ten weeks.^[29] In 2005 the blues singer and guitarist Popa Chubby released an album entitled Big Man Big Guitar containing a live version of "Hallelujah".

In 2006, Tony Award nominee Euan Morton (Boy George's Taboo) recorded the song for his first solo album NewClear. The band Fall Out Boy also incorporated the tune into their song Hum Hallelujah in their album Infinity on High. Swedish progressive metal band Pain Of Salvation played the song in concert in Amsterdam on 2 March, 2007. The concert has been later released in the DVD Ending Themes (On the Two Deaths of Pain of Salvation). The international group Il Divo released a Spanish adaptation on their 2008 album The Promise, which topped the charts in the UK. The song was performed by singer/songwriter Damien Rice at the 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions when Cohen was inducted.

Although Alexandra Burke won the fifth series of X Factor, the video to the single was actually recorded in week 9. Although unreleased, the versions of "Hallelujah" sung by Diana Vickers, Eoghan Quigg, and JLS have since been leaked on the internet on sites such as YouTube. Progressive rock singer/songwriter Kevin Max covered the song on his 2004 album Between the Fence & the Universe. Keren Ann also covered the song in the limited edition version of her self-titled album 'Keren Ann'. Paramore covers the song as an intro to their own song by the same title, "Hallelujah", in their live album 'The Final Riot!'

Since 2008 the scotting Pop singer Amy MacDonald played the song only live on his several concerts.^[30]

Accolades and achievements

• In 2005, "Hallelujah" was named the tenth greatest Canadian song of all time in Chart magazine's annual readers' poll.
• The BBC commemorated the 25th anniversary of the first recording with an hour-long radio documentary, "The Fourth, The Fifth, The Minor Fall", in which the song's history and numerous cover versions were presented and discussed.^[25]
• Jon Wilde of The Guardian has noted of the song, "it's rapidly on its way to becoming the most discussed and debated song of all time."^[31]
• On 21 December 2008, "Hallelujah" became the first song in 51 years^[9] to occupy the first and second positions on the UK Singles Chart; The X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke's and American singer Jeff Buckley's covers were the two highest-selling songs in the week beginning 15 December 2008.^[32]
• In the February 2009 issue of Blender Magazine, "Hallelujah" was featured as that month's "Greatest Song Ever" (a monthly feature).

Chart positions

References

External links

• 'Hallelujah – Jeff Buckley (Written By Leonard Cohen)' Mini-Review on Stray Poetry
• 1984 version lyrics, on The Leonard Cohen Files
• 1988 version lyrics, on The Leonard Cohen Files
• BBC: Just whose hallelujah is it anyway? - article on writing and meaning of song
• Hallelujah lyrics