Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

For other uses, see Hallelujah (disambiguation).

"Hallelujah"
Song

"Hallelujah"
Song

"Hallelujah" is a song written by Leonard Cohen. It was first recorded on his 1984 album Various Positions. It has been covered numerous times and featured in the soundtracks of several movies and television shows.

Cover versions

One of the best-known covers of "Hallelujah" was recorded by the American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley for his 1994 album, Grace. Jeff Buckley's version is a sparse productions of vocals and guitar, influenced by John Cale's earlier cover of "Hallelujah" which first appeared on his live album Fragments of a Rainy Season and later on the 1991 Leonard Cohen tribute album I'm Your Fan. Many regard Buckley's version of the song as the definitive work.

John Cale's version was featured in the 2001 animated film Shrek. Rufus Wainwright covered the song as well, and his version appears on the film's soundtrack album rather than Cale's. This is apparently because Wainwright is signed with Dreamworks SKG and Cale is not. The score for Shrek features similarities to the music of "Hallelujah", indicating it could have been influenced by the song.

Among the many other musicians who have performed covers of this song are Kate Voegele, Nick Hrenchuk, Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge, the Italian singer Elisa from her album "Lotus", Maxwell Murder of Saturday's Car Ride Home, Jeff Martin, Frou Frou, Alex Lloyd, Sephira, Adam Nikkel, Willie Nelson, Elisa, Beefy, Bono, Bob Dylan, Bon Jovi, Bret Darby, Clare Bowditch, Fred Eaglesmith, Spoon, Steve Acho, Rufus Wainwright, Allison Crowe, Patricia O'Callaghan, David Bazan, Jackie Greene, Regina Spektor, John Cale,Julie Felix, Damien Leith, Anthony Michael Hall [1], Bettie Serveert, Custard, k.d. lang, Kevin Max, Gord Downie, Simple Plan, Gov't Mule, Steffen Brandt/Tina Dickow (in Danish translation), K's Choice, Enrique Morente (flamenco version, translated to Spanish), Street to Nowhere, Wayne Whittaker, the Prayerbabies, Kevin Christy, Kathryn Williams, Lucky Jim, Over the Rhine, Pat Terlizzi, Myrra Malmberg, Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, Damien Rice, Michael Wolff, The Teamakers, Imogen Heap, Jimm Zombie, Joe Wilson, Hilary Scott and The Choir of Hard Knocks. Fall Out Boy sampled the song on their 2007 album Infinity on High, on the track "Hum Hallelujah". The West did a cover of the song on the "4 Song EP" entitling it "Song for Leonard". The website SadKermit.com posted a cover of Sad Kermit covering the song in Buckley's style. Another published cover can be found on the single Tausend Tränen Tief (1999) by the German band Blumfeld.

Counting live performances, the list of artists who have performed "Hallelujah" includes RRRadio Gee, Ari Hest, Chris Frank, Betty Buckley, Brandi Carlile, Bon Jovi, Connie Champagne, Caamora, Doug Parmenter, Howie Day, Gavin DeGraw, Dave Dobbyn, The Dresden Dolls, Chris Clonts, Damien Rice, David Ford, Jay Clifford, Mike Winger, Tim Minchin, Regina Spektor, Starsailor, Donna Lynne Champlin,Rodney Harris, Alter Bridge, Todd Carey, Pain of Salvation, Sheryl Crow, James Yarsky, Jeff Waters, at17, Popa Chubby, David Bazan (of Pedro the Lion), and Zach Condon (of Beirut). Chris Botti recorded an instrumental version of the song for the album December. Susanna and The Magical Orchestra performed their take on the song at the London Jazz festival; broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on the 13th of December 2004. An a cappella version by Clemson University's "TakeNote" is included on the "Best of College A Cappella 2006" CD. K.D. Lang did a version in an episode of Later (UK live music TV show hosted by Jools Holland), which made it onto DVD. The University of Oregon a cappella group, On the Rocks also does a version on their album, Full Coverage. Danish a cappella ensemble Vocal Line recorded the song for their 2006 album, "Vocal Stories". Bono and the Edge (from U2) performed the song at one of their concerts out of respect for Jeff Buckley just after his death. Australian comedian and musician Tim Minchin performed the song as a duet with Geraldine Quinn at a live show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005, footage of which can be seen on YouTube.

A Norwegian group including Espen Lind, Kurt Nilsen, Alejandro Fuentes and Askil Holm performed the song under the name De Nye Gitarkameratene. A parody version of them and the song was made under the name Hallelujah-kameratene (including Espen Beranek Holm, Marit Voldsæter, Ole Morten Aagenæs and Kai Taule under the Norwegian award show Komiprisen on the Norwegian TV-channel NRK and later under another award show named Gullruten which runs on the TV-channel TV2

Welsh group Brigyn have covered the song and changed the lyrics to festive Welsh lyrics.

On American Idol and many other versions of the show around the world the song has been performed live numerous times. Most recently Brian Melo the winner of Canadian Idol 5 performed the song. Other notable performances of the song have come from Josh Palmer on Canadian Idol 2 and Damien Leith, winner of the 4th Australian series of the show.

Movie and TV soundtracks

"Hallelujah" is often used in television shows and movies during scenes involving death or heartbreak. It has been featured in movies as diverse as Basquiat, The Edukators (Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei), A Lot Like Love, Shrek (covered by John Cale), St. Ralph, Deliver Us from Evil, Kissed by Winter, Barfuss, Lord of War and When Night is Falling, and TV series such as Holby City, House, M.D., Falcon Beach, The L Word, The O.C. (twice by Jeff Buckley, once by Imogen Heap), Hollyoaks, The West Wing, Scrubs, Without a Trace, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, ER, The Shield, Nip/Tuck, Crossing Jordan, Drama and Nicole, Rescue Me, LAX, Lost, Roswell, Ugly Betty, Numb3rs and Nearly Famous. It was also used in the Third Watch and Without a Trace episodes dealing with the 9/11 events. "Hallelujah" was played at the closing of NBC's Dateline on April 17, 2007, covering the Virginia Tech massacre. During the playing of the song, a montage of photographs regarding the events of the tragedy was displayed.

Lyrics

Different cover versions of "Hallelujah", and different performances by Leonard Cohen himself, sometimes include different lyrics than those in Cohen's original 1984 recording. However, although individual words do change between various versions, most of the variation may be due to selection from Cohen's complete lyrics rather than additions by the cover artist. In a 2001 interview with The Observer, John Cale said:

After I saw [Cohen] perform at the Beacon I asked if I could have the lyrics to "Hallelujah". When I got home one night there were fax paper rolls everywhere because Leonard had insisted on supplying all 15 verses."

The original recording from 1984 is noted for containing explicit biblical references in the lyrics, alluding to David's harp-playing used to soothe King Saul (I Sam. 16:23), and his later affair with Bathsheba after watching her bathe from his roof. The line "she broke your throne and she cut your hair" is likely a reference to the source of Samson's strength from the Book of Judges. The third verse mentions "the name" (Tetragrammaton). In these instances, the lyrics are overtly sexual. Jeff Buckley had said the song was about the 'hallelujah of an orgasm'.

In 1994, Cohen released a substantially different version on the album Cohen Live (recorded in 1988), retaining only the final verse from Various Positions. In this version, the lyrics became more explicitly sexual, and the music was slightly reworked. Many cover artists mix lyrics from both versions, and occasionally make other changes (such as Rufus Wainwright singing "holy dark" and Allison Crowe singing "Holy Ghost" rather than "holy dove").

In the section of the lyrics "the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift", the chords move as described in the lyrics. In C major, for example, the chords would move as follows: F ('the fourth'), G ('the fifth'), Am (a movement downwards and to a minor chord), F (a movement upwards, and to a major chord).[2]

As well as recording a cover of the original version, in February 2007 Alistair Griffin rewrote the lyrics to reference the soccer player Mark Viduka. Leonard Cohen gave permission for this to be released as a charity download in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

Lincoln Brewster released a rewritten and retitled version, "Another Hallelujah" on its album "All to You" in August, 2005.

Welsh rock-outfit Lostprophets uses the song's sentence "I've seen this room and I've walked this floor" in their track 'Can't Catch Tomorrow (Good Shoes Won't Save You This Time)' on their latest album Liberation Transmission. It's not clear if this use is coincidental or not.

Chart rankings

In 2004, Buckley's version was ranked #259 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

"Hallelujah" was also named the tenth greatest Canadian song of all time in Chart magazine's 2005 reader's poll.

In September 2007, Q Magazine dubbed Buckley's version "the most perfect song ever".

Buckley's version was ranked #2 in U Choose 40 in the topic of Tearjerkers on New Zealands C4 music channel, losing out only to the Johnny Cash cover of "Hurt".

External links

• 1984 lyrics (Various Positions), from The Leonard Cohen Files
• 1988 lyrics (Cohen Live), from The Leonard Cohen Files
• List of the artists who have covered Hallelujah on My Old Kentucky Blog, a music blog
• Discussion on the meaning of the song on Radio Hidebound