Hallelujah- Which is the best version?

Subject: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Peter Stockport
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 07:03 PM

Hmm,
I've listened to the Alexandra version, the leonard Cohen and the Jeff Buckley Version.
I know there's others, I think the Alexandra version is too overproduced. Too much going on, and too much wailing.
I like the Jeff Buckley one but I think I'm edging toward the Leonard Cohen one, perhaps because I know he wrote it.
So, which version should be number one?
Does it matter? I think it does, it's a great song and one with real words, not like the usual musical pap that makes the towering tops of the hit parade.

Not sure the key change is needed either, in the Alexandra version,
Peter

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Acorn4
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 07:09 PM

And it's actually quite upbeat for Laughing Len, n'est-ce pas??

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 07:30 PM

Not the Rufus Wainwright, he screws up the rhyme.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,lox
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 07:33 PM

There was an album of cohen covers, and whoever didd it on that did a pretty good version, but for me its all about buckley.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 07:42 PM

Buckley rules! LC wrote amazing lyrics, but his treatment I find too bland (or something).

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: paula t
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 08:00 PM

I like K.D.Laing's version. What a gorgeous voice!

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Acorn4
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 08:17 PM

I'm surprised Cliff hasn't covered it!

No, don't tell me. He probably has.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Midchuck
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 08:20 PM

Ever heard the Five Blind Boys of Alabama do Richard Thompson's "Dimming of the Day?" Imagine what they could do with this...

Peter

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 09:27 PM

I am with Paula T - I love kd lang'sversion.....

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: kerry and Mandy
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 01:30 AM

hi all
i think that the version done by a young guy called chris meller, who is 15 years old and a regular at our club at the Star Inn Romney marsh is my favorite. but then im biased.
heres the link to his my space.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=400869244

have a listen and see what you think.
kerry and mandy

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Deskjet
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 02:14 AM

The Jeff Buckley version is one of my favourite recordings,ever.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 02:47 AM

It's a dirge and all versions should be consigned to the wastebin.


DC

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 02:58 AM

Buckley's version is awsome but for me Cohen's "Various Positions" version shades it by a whisker. It is the song that has almost closed the generation gap in our house since my youngest one thinks the opposite and he holds Tim Buckley's rendering in true reverence.
We are all entitled to our opinion DC but at present it is you against 73,000 members of Facebook.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: s&r
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 02:58 AM

I normally like KDLang. I love Hallelujah. Sadly in my view the two should never have met.

I see this as a somewhat earthy love poem, rather than quasi religious.

Stu

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 02:59 AM

Oh dear the generation gap - I mean Jeff Buckley.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Teribus
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 03:05 AM

Having listened to it I'm with Doug Chadwick.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 03:09 AM

That's 2 against 73,000.

The score is begining to level out even as I write.

DC

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 03:14 AM

There is no best version.

I'm of the opinion that a song is only as good as the memory it envokes. Having heard several versions of 'Hallelujah', I remember them for different reasons, and that clouds the issue over whether they were good or not. The version I heard shortly after I was told my cousin had been killed in a terrible car accident is forever tainted with that memory, so I don't like it. The version that they play on 'Scrubs' is associated with a programme I like, so it's a good version, as with the one they play on 'Shrek', if indeed, it's not the same version...

Personally, I don't think anything can beat the 'Hallelujah' that Georg Frederic Handel wrote... but that's just me.

LTS

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: theleveller
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 03:16 AM

I'd certainly go for Jeff Buckley. Interestingly, my 17-year old son was rooting through my CD collection and came across it and now plays it continuously on his iPod along with Slipknot, the Chillis and The Killers. So, Jeff's version definitely bridges the generations.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 03:21 AM

I'll go with Liz's choice of Handel.

DC

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,Guest, Green Wellies
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 03:37 AM

What's it about.

The other half is reading the words over and over (he's like that) and trying to work it out. He's driving me up the B****y wall. Can someone offer some explanation for him, before I do something I may later regret.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Stu
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 03:42 AM

Buckley, with KD Lang a close second simply for her incredible voice.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 03:56 AM

As a life long fan of the mighty Leonard I always prefer his versions of his songs, although Jennifer Warnes came a close second with her album 'Famous blue raincoat'
                I'm just pleased that some pop person is topping up the old fellas pension fund.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: greg stephens
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 04:02 AM

Main stage of Glastonbury this year, Leonard himself, the sun setting behind the hill on a perfect day, 50,000 people singing the chorus, Cohen taking off the hat reverentially and saying "Thank you friends". Absolutely perfect.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,Golightly
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 04:06 AM

Leveller,

if your 17 year old son has got to grips with Hallelujah's lyrics, please could you ask him to have a go at the Killers' 'Human'?
I love it to bits but.......

Apologies for thread creep.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 04:14 AM

Simon Ritchie on Squeezebox Schizophrenia, recorded several years ago now. And all the rest of the CD, to give all the "but it's not f*lk" brigade a fit that might shock them into listening.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Domnull
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 05:06 AM

El Poco
I'm with you - give me Leonard's anytime. Also couldn't agree more about the benefits that LC will (hopefully) enjoy because of this song, especially given his financial woes a couple of years back
thread.cfm?threadid=83855#1553324

It is no coincidence that there have been quite a few cover/tribute CDs made of 'big names' doing Cohen songs.

Weirdest version of Hallelujah is maybe Bono's

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,Ralphie
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 05:17 AM

Definitely Simon Ritchie....(Along with his waltz time version of Anarchy in the UK)

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 05:24 AM

Buckley does it so beautifully. "There was a time I moved in you, and the holy ghost was moving too, and every breath we drew was 'hallelujah'" For anyone who finds the lyrics confusing, my assumption is that it's an erotic love song that exalts his experience of loving her and the sex they share, into an act of 'worship'. And I guess she goes on to leave him. But then don't they always!

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 05:40 AM

There was an album of cohen covers, and whoever didd it on that did a pretty good version

John Cale (also the version they use, bizarrely, in Shrek). This is the best version I've heard. I can't listen to either of Cohen's - he over-emotes on both, and on the live version he's not actually singing (hasn't been for a while now). Rufus Wainwright's (the version they use, even more bizarrely, on the Shrek soundtrack album) is just pretty.

Tim Buckley did singing-like-Tim-Buckley amazingly well, and he does it amazingly well on his version of Hallelujah; it's a magical performance. But I think it's a performance by a performer much more than it's a performance of a song. Also, to my mind he was just too young - it's a bruised, jaded, middle-aged song, I always feel. (Tim Buckley aged 40 singing Hallelujah... what might have been eh?)

John Cale hits the notes and sings the words like they mean something to him, which they probably do. His version is spare and bleak - jaded and middle-aged - but held up by that beautiful, never-ending, rolling piano part beneath it. It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah - but it's still a hallelujah.

I hope never to hear the version by this Alexandra person. (Key change? That song needs a key change like Simon Cowell needs assertiveness training.) I'll probably be disappointed.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 05:40 AM

John Cale with the piano from "I'm Your Fan" seems to be the most widely heard...love it...

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Stonebridge
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 06:12 AM

I would also vote for J. Cale from the "I'm Your Fan" album.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Silas
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 06:17 AM

Would not like to say who's the best version is, probably Buckley, but I certainly know who has the worst version - Bloody X sodding Factor.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 06:23 AM

I love K D Lang's version ......

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NpxTWbovE&feature=channel_page

...... but then I'm a great fan of hers :-)

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Rasener
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 06:25 AM

Well I find it very difficult to choose the best version of it.

KD Lang just gets my vote

Il Divo do a very nice version of it.

I also like Rufus Wainrights version

I also Like Alexandria Burke's version. She has a great voice.

I wonder what Ricky Nelson would have been like doing this.

Here you go, listen to all of them on this link

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2008/12/15/hallelujah-from-alexandra-burke-to-jeff-buckley-listen-to-the-top-ten-versions-of

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,KevBoyd
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 06:28 AM

The disappointing thing about the X-Factor final (besides it's very existence, obviously) was that little hairy Eggnog got kicked out too early for us to hear is no-doubt excruciating version of "Hallelujah".

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: evansakes
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 06:34 AM

Key change?? My arse!!

I've now heard the version by the X factor woman....awful awful awful. How anyone in their right mind can take this sensitive and passionate lament and turn it into a paint-by-numbers power ballad is beyond comprehension.

Well it goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall and the major lift
The clumsy and superfluous modulation

(Chorus, altogether, arms raised, lighters lit, cut to Cheryl Cole in floods of tears and a gobsmacked Simon Cowell etc etc)

Favourite version....Jeff Buckley gets totally inside the song for me.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: mattkeen
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 07:44 AM

Buckley's is absolutely beautiful & the best

But I do agree that it prob a song for an older person than Buckley was.


Enter Keith Richard stage right.............

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Rasener
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 07:47 AM

Pretty blinkered there Twickfolk.

If my daughters were to hear you slagging off Alexandria Burke, they would just think you were an old fart, and don't know what you are talking about.

How can you say she is aweful. Can you do better. Are you so good that yopu can pass judgement like that?

Gets my goat that people can so easily say that somebody is aweful, when in actual fact they don't suit your taste. Seems to be most applicable in the blinkered world of the folk scene.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: evansakes
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 08:43 AM

No I can't do better but that isn't the point. Funnily enough I used to do Hallelujah ten or more years back....I might not be a Caruso (or a Burke :-) but I like to think I got the point of the song across a little more effectively than Alexandria's bombastic version.

Her version IS awful in my opinion because it totally fails to serve the song. Hallelujah is a simple and poetic lament (almost a psalm) with a soaring and beautiful melody which gets totally dismembered by someone who is (let's face it) simply a glorified karaoke singer who has won a vacuous competition. It will be number one at Christmas simply because Burke has had hundreds of hours of free advertising in recent weeks and is tabloid fodder ad nauseam. 99% of the people who watch aren't discerning enough to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Like all X Factor types Burke suffers from terminal Mariah-itis.
For me anyone's abilities as a singer aren't defined by how many decorations you can make to a melody. Or perhaps I mean desecrations? These "singers" (apologies for paraphrasing dear old Jake) "will never sing two or three notes when a couple of thousand will easily do". That in itself is enough to make it awful in my opinion.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 08:52 AM

Spot on Gerry. If it doesn't serve the song, any cover ain't worth the millions spent in advertising it.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,chris
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 10:39 AM

Lola from either Casualty or Holby City a number of christmas's ago took a lot of beating for me
chris

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 10:44 AM

OK Chris, but is this the place to discuss Lola's sacrifice on your behalf?

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Rasener
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 11:25 AM

Well I told my daughters about the dislike of Alexandria Burke's version. They couldn't beleive it, but just commented "Ah well she will be number 1, that's good enough".
Problem is, that my daughters think folk is boring and so out of date.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 11:27 AM

Folk or you, Les? Face up to it.
I know the answer in my case!

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Teribus
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 11:33 AM

"That's 2 against 73,000."

You mean we've got them surrounded Doug??

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Rasener
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 11:34 AM

Well I like her version George and listen a lot to their music and like a lot of it (Radio1 for me). I realise having taken them to enough folk gigs that they are just not interested. So whilst I listen to their music, they get ratty if I put folk music on. I still likes me folk music though :-) And tehy still love their Dad, at least I think so. Of course they do, when I take them all over the place in the car, give em money etc etc. For the rest, I might as well not be there :-)

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 12:24 PM

Jeff Buckley every time!

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 12:33 PM

If it was not for the X Factor it would not even be up for discussion, well done Simon C. They all sing it very well in their different styles and it pleases their individual audiences.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,Chris Murray
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 01:11 PM

I think that Leonard Cohen's own version is the best as he sings it how he meant it to be sung.

I do, however, like Jeff Buckley's and kd lang's versions while a friend swears by Bob Jovi's.

There's a horrible version by Bono on 'Tower of Song' - a CD of Cohen covers.

The main thing is that Leonard will be getting lots of lovely royalties from the X-factor version - thanks, indeed, to Simon Cowell.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 03:34 PM

jeff buckley's version is fine, john cale's version is my fave, but kathryn williams does a lovely version on her album of covers, the name of which escapes me at present.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 04:10 PM

yeh, who is this Lola, and why is she on this thread? :))

Rosie - yes, I think your summary is right - and it's so rare to find lyrics that are passionately erotic, as opposed to just raunchy/in-yer-face sexual. But did you notice - that verse was omitted from all the X-factor versions? (at least it was on TV) - hypocritical or what?

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Zen
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 04:50 PM

It's a terrific song. Leonard's own version is my favourite closely followed by kd lang's.

Good to see it doing well and the subject of discussion.

Zen

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Folkiedave
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 05:19 PM

Les Barker.

To Handel's Tune - Harvey Andrews.......

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Peter the Squeezer
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 05:37 PM

I go along with Liz.

Handel every time.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 06:39 PM

Sue - a) family teatime viewing ("that's funny Mum he said 'I moved in you', you can't move in someone else can you Mum? Mum?")
b) female singers

Both good reasons for not choosing the bloody song in the first place, of course (if the risks of submitting a classic song to the tender mercies of X-Factor finallists weren't enough on their own). But what do I know.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 06:44 PM

I think I would go for Lordi's Hardrock Hallelujah...

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 06:46 PM

Pip

a) Yes, but my point there was that other pop songs aren't censored like that and keep their raunchy/suggestive bits...

b) Female singers shouldn't sing that song? why's that?

Sue

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Noreen
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 07:03 PM

Doubt it was censored as such, Sue- I believe Mr Cohen wrote at least eighty verses... and has released at least two almost totally different versions of the song, so there are plenty to choose from.

I shouldn't think Simon Callow chose this song for its words anyway...

wiki / Hallelujah_(Leonard_Cohen_song)

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 07:09 PM

Um, mainly because the verse alludes to the experience of penetrative sex from the male perspective, Sue.

Cowell, Noreen - although I'd love to hear Simon Callow's version...

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Rog Peek
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 07:24 PM

Leonard Cohen's every time!

Rog

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Noreen
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 07:28 PM

Ha! Yes, I typed too hastily- thanks, Pip.

Btw, the discussion about the wiki entry for this song is worth a read (click the discussion tab after loading the wiki page I linked to above), dealing with the relative importance of the latest cover version of this song in the greater scheme of things...

I'm going to bed now before I make some greater blunder!

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 07:58 PM

Pip - not necessarily....that verse could be interpreted many ways....think about it (starting with kd lang)...... :)

Noreen - yeh, but the verses Alexandria sings are the most commonly sung ones, bar the erotic verse....

But exciting news!...there's a Facebook campaign to persuade people to download the Buckley version instead of X-factor one, to take over the no.1 slot, or at least come in at no 2 or 3.... see this link (sorry blue clicky wouldn't accept the URL)
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theampersand/archive/2008/12/15/a-secret-chord-jeff-buckley-leonard-cohen-fans-unite-to-keep-reality-show-version-of-hallelujah-off-british-chart.aspx


Sue

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,chris
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 01:49 AM

Hi
suegorgeous, unfortunately I can't remember the actresses name who played the character 'Lola' in the TV program (Casualty or Holby City- UK tv) but she sang the song during a xmas screening- quite moving
chris

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 04:42 AM

Somehow or other I seem to have had the rare fortune to have got through most of my life without very once encountering Hallelujah - knowingly at any rate. The first time I knowingly encountered it was on Nick Cave's No More Shall We Part back in 2001, where Kate & Anna McGarrigle take their part in the heady mix. As part of that particular confection it was by no mean remarkable but made a certain sense on the merits of context alone as a passable Nick Cave song. I might add that my acquaintance with the album was casual rather than obsessive, which is to say, I did not sit down & scrutinise the CD cover. Then, all of a sudden, it seemed to be everywhere - radio, folk clubs, TV documentaries, and I'm thinking - all this fuss over a Nick Cave song?

Now I know better, or worse; and truth to tell I wouldn't care if I never heard the bloody thing again.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,Alex
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 05:40 AM

Simon Ritchie's amazing squeezebox version and very different to all the others.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 07:05 AM

As I only really knew Leonard Cohen's original and Simon Ritchie's, I just listened (or struggled through) a whole bunch of other Hallelujahs. I made the acid test "Does the performer actually understand: Love is not a victory march, it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah"?

John Cale, Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright probably do. I was mildly disappointed by k d lang, but maybe it was because she appeared to be performing in some sort of sleazy night club and pitched the performance accordingly. I'm so trying desperately to rid my mind of that execrable X-Factor clip. I'm quite sure that if you asked that "Alexandra" what the song was about all you'd get would be a blank stare.

My order of preference remains Cohen himself, and Simon Ritchie.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 08:39 AM

There's always Bob Dylan's version, which I reckon passes that acid test pretty well. Sort of "bloody but unbowed".

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 09:07 AM

Yes, I think Bob Dylan's take probably does. He makes it sound like some add-on verses to Like A Rolling Stone.
Yes, you really shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 09:23 AM

Of course Bob Dylan doesn't actually sing that line, but he doesn't really need to.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 09:51 AM

Tell you a version I would have love to have heard....a Nirvana version..I bet they would have done it well. (And if they have done a version, can you give me the link?)

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 11:02 AM

Hi Kids: For me it's KD Lang, hands down. For Style, Class, Voice, Articulation, Emotion, and Delivery. It is a rendition that will be remembered. I see Leonard Cohen saying, "Thanks K.D.!" Buckley's is O.K., but not in the same league. Since K.D.'s video has been posted, I'll put up Buckley's for comparison...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqsW9x0Wk74&feature=related
He seems to be struggling with it, maybe some of you hear that as "emotion", not me. And, there are parts in there that make me cringe. I'll pass on Buckley...
BR

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: evansakes
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 11:52 AM

Today's Guardian asks the same question...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/dec/18/popandrock-christmas

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Rasener
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 03:11 PM

Guest Bob, I am with you on that one.

Mind you, I still like the X Factor one very much.

Oh to have an open mind LOL :-)

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,Nicholas Waller
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 04:01 PM

And The Times gets involved (cover story, T2).

There's a useful section on the various versions and where you might have heard them (Shrek, the OC) and where to play it - for the Bono version, they suggest "in court, to Bono and a judge and jury".

I saw Nathalie Nahai (someone I want to call Nath Alien Ahai) do a rather effectively intimate version at The Old Down in Somerset a year or so ago. I don't think the YouTube version you can see online does much justice to the live impact.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,santa
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 04:11 PM

Has anyone listened/compared Buddy Kaye and Jules Loman's Christmas Alphabet (published in 1954)? I reckon Leonard Cohen must have heard it and been influenced by the melody.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 04:37 PM

I wonder if Rolf Harris has done one with a wobble board...

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 04:43 PM

I like the John Cale version and Leonard Cohen but the absolute worst has got to be Kathryn Jenkins on her album 'Sacred Arias'!! She sings it in operatic style rhyming Hallelujah with dooo yoooo!

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: paula t
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 07:04 PM

Sarah and Kathryn are a bit fed up because they have been singing it for a while, and now they think everyone will accuse them of copying the X Factor!

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 07:10 PM

Apparently over 100 vocalists have covered the song.

I can't wait for Buckley's version to top Alexandra's in the charts!

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 08:17 PM

Hi Kids: After I left PolyGram and went to work for C.M.S. Music, we had an expression, which was, "He likes it..." What that meant was that the guy who "liked it" was a complete jerk, but that he had the money to pay, didn't have any taste, but was willing to write the cheque. So who were we to stop him?

What I've learned from this thread is that a lot of people can't hear. This HELPS me in my own projects for it supports the theory of "The Long Tale" by Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of WIRED Magazine who purports that most music that is able to reach the marketplace will find it's niche. It may not be the "best" version, but it is a version that some people are willing to pay for. i.e. "They like it..." This makes me money...

Thanks...BR

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 08:49 PM

So... a lot of people on this thread are complete jerks(?)...is what it sounds like you're saying...

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 11:38 PM

Bob's friend, Weebl.












(Sorry!)

~ Becky in Tucson
mother of Dan, the W&B fan...

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,frank
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 07:01 AM

I searched the net and found what I think is the best version after listening all versions including the x-factor one. In my humble opinion I think Bow Jenkins does the best version and its on I tunes. here is her website if you interested: http://www.bowjenkins.com

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 08:15 AM

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nnHksDFHTQI

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Santa
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 09:05 AM

I don't quite understand why I haven't heard this song before, but was sent to Mudcat to get the words on behalf of a friend of Mrs Santa, who thought that it had to be a better song than X-factor had made it. So I've been playing some of the You-tube videos. Not yet found Alexandra's version, possibly happily so. There's a young lass recently started coming to the club, she doesn't know much folk music but knows that songs should be sung as if they mean something to the singer. She was quite dismissive about X-factor - nearly as good as the Guardian today (but as I haven't heard it yet, I shouldn't really comment, should I?)

Just to join the crowd in pressing my own opinions: Katherine Jenkins was quite good, if a bit soulless, but the kdlang one was awful. Pure ham and over-acting. She'd got to be taking the piss.

I'm not sure I've found the "best" version yet, it's not Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Allison Crowe, although Kate Voegele's ok-ish. Quite liked Rufus Wainwright but the John Cale one was pretty good, for the reasons mentioned above. Now suffering from over-exposure, so will go away and listen to the Buckley and Cohen versions again tonight.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,Gadaffi
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 09:16 AM

Simon Ritchie on 'Squezebox schizophrenia.' No competition.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 09:36 AM

Dear Sue(gorgeous), how are you(a rhyme, and it's early in the morning.) Yo. Uh, weeeeell, let's call it musically challenged to be politically correct. A close friend of mine(my sweetie) loves this particular CD of ethnic music where the mandolin player is SERIOUSLY out of tune. I listen to it with her because she loves the music, which is good, but the guy is out of tune. So who am I, a mere MAN...
to tell her what she likes is flawed? She's having a good time, so I just shut up about it, just like I'm going to do right now...And, this lessens the chances of her putting a pillow over my face during the night...BR

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 11:16 AM

And, just for fun...Bon Jovi - Respect...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMRPfCRV2xI
Faithful to the original, done by real Pros who know what they're doing...nice
BR

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,santa
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 12:14 PM

The more I listen to this song the more I think Cohen took his melody from Buddy Kaye and Jules Loman's Christmas Alphabet (published in 1954). The first four bars are identical.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Beer
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 12:23 PM

Three Cheers for Leonard.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 01:18 PM

Casa Crumpet's verdict is Jeff Buckley - except it doesn't include the "Even though it all went wrong" verse, which is one of my favourites.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Santa
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 02:13 PM

Just to clarify: Guest: Santa isn't me.

Having replayed the Kate Voegele version, I need to add something. Its OK.... until she gets into over-emphasising the hallelujahs.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 12:56 PM

The spoof version heard on The Now Show on Radio 4 (about 5 minutes from the end)

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,bankley
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 01:05 PM

I thought it was about a racetrack in Hialeah,,,,,,,,, Florida....

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 01:33 PM

And Buckley's version is now no. 3 in the I-Tunes chart (and no.30 in the Official Singles Chart - where Alexandra doesn't yet appear...)

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 01:57 PM

Just in case you'd like to download Jeff Buckley's version and/or support the campaign - here's the Facebook link (which has several download links on the page)

Jeff Buckley campaign Facebook page

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Kampervan
Date: 21 Dec 08 - 04:20 AM

Well, the Bishop of Croydon, a man who certainly seems to have spent a lot of time listening to Leonard Cohen and his works, was in no doubt on Radio 4 this morning. He was of the opinion that Alexandra Burke had 'murdered' Hallelujah.
His preference was for either the Buckley or the Cale version.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 21 Dec 08 - 01:51 PM

Latest news - Buckley's in at no.2 in the UK Singles Chart! just below Alexandra. New chart just out.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 21 Dec 08 - 01:52 PM

Hallelujah i`m a bum.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Noreen
Date: 21 Dec 08 - 04:16 PM

Just listened to Jeff Buckley's version for the first time, and I love it- he inhabits the song. Shivers down the spine where he sings..cold and broken.. Real music.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: akenaton
Date: 21 Dec 08 - 04:16 PM

Hallelujah bum again......Hows it goin,Ard :0)

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 21 Dec 08 - 08:47 PM

Peace, Bob....... lol :)

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 12:55 PM

I would vote for kd lang hands down, then LC's version. I really do not care at all for the Jeff Buckley version. Saw LC sing it live recently..awesome and he has such respect for his audience.. a class act all the way round and a truly great song.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Rasener
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 04:03 PM

Well Jeff buckley came runner up. So congatulations to Alexandra Burke. Beside the whole of the folkie world and even the Bishop of Croydon conveying their disatisfaction, the rest of the nation voted for her.

It won't spoil my Xmas as i like both versions, but like KD Langs version the best.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 04:09 PM

"...the rest of the nation voted for her." Most of the nation had better things to do. Even very unimportant things would qualify for that.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Rasener
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 04:54 PM

Sour grapes me thinks. The folkie world is so blinkered at times.

When I was a young lad, i swore I wopuld not be like my dad criticising all the new singers on the market, if i had children.

I listen to Radio 1 at the ripe old age of 63 and I hear an aweful lot of excellent music, that my daughters enjoy.

I also listen and see an aweful lot of folk singers and most of it I thoroughly enjoy.

Music is music and it makes the world go around. I don't know what I would do without music, from whatever Genre. Its the spice of life. Folk does not rule or own the world.

I run Faldingworth Live with passion, but I hope I never get so blinkered that I cannot accept our youngsters form of music.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 05:12 PM

I've never seen the X thing. I didn't know there was a vote because, as McGrath says, I had better (not hard) things to do, as had most of the "rest of the nation" (or I certainly hope so).
Enfranchisement is a tremendous, hard-won privilege and I always use it to elect people who I hope will at least try to make a difference.
Crap karaoke "performers" who belt out words without the slightest inkling of what they are singing about do not come anywhere near that category.
The sole positive outcome is that Leonard Cohen will recoup some of the dosh his accountant nicked.
Meanwhile, I continue to recommend Simon Ritchie's take on Squeezebox Schizophrenia.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Rasener
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 05:39 PM

Well the download was on a scale of 7 to 1

So whether you think the folk version is better or not, think about it when you go into your supermarket. out of every 8 people you see, 7 don't agree with the folk world.

Thats a pretty heavy majority.

So instead of thinking everybody else is wrong, may i suggest that you may be wrong.

well its no nay never, no nay never .......

I love folk, but am not so stupid to think that it is the b all and end all. Its a genre of music, a small part, but it makes me happy.

Sometimes I think the folk world is a b it like the Liberal Party. The minority trying to preach to the majority.

As Diane Easby says "The sole positive outcome is that Leonard Cohen will recoup some of the dosh his accountant nicked."

And there was me thinking that the folk world was the most honest in the world. Well that is apart from Cohen's accountant and Pickering Folk Festival.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 09:14 PM

I don't think the criticism of the Burke rendering is anything to do with her not singing it as if it were a folksong and as if she was a folksinger. Leonard Cohen isn't exactly a folk singer, and this is hardly a folksong.

It's about whether she did justice to the song.   And I'd doubt if that was a matter which too many of those voting were concerned about - it was surely about who they wanted to see more of in the future.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Ian Fyvie
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 10:06 PM

Does it matter?

Smells like a bit of artificial conflict - a la Wrestling Matches: get an argument going in the media - Air Head Dept. - and watch support/sales for each boom!

Didn't know it as a Leonard Cohen song - not a fan of that sort of music anyway...


Ian Fyvie

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Rasener
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 05:12 AM

Hmm, just saw this snippet on anotehr forum. Don't know how accurate it is.

>>According to either the Sunday Express or Mail Leonard will not be raking any money in for royalties on his classic song! A few years ago his ex lover/manager advised him to sell his back catalogue which he did....to Sony. <<

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 05:20 AM

Handel's.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 05:34 AM

Omigod! poor Lenny!! :0

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,Meggly
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 06:34 AM

Hey Villan!

Is anyone allowed to critisise Ms Burke's version on artistic grounds or have we all just had our morning's fill of folkie sour grapes?

Just cause something is the most commercially popular doesn't make the detractors 'wrong' in the sense of their tastes and sensibilities, it just means that they're in the minority. History is littered with cases of the commercial (or most marketed) winning out over the better 'quality'; Betamax vs VHS for example.

I like many a pop act (I don't exclusively favour folk over pop). What I tend not to like are songs that are most obviously sung/produced by people using music as a route to fame/money, taking songs they have little feel for and simply replicating the mores of current commerical acceptability and applying blanket vocal techniques; which to my ears is what AB, and her producers, have done to a song I feel particularly strongly about. I'm not so naive to believe that this is new, but there have been numerous studies recently highlighting that increasingly young people's career aspirations centre around being famous (mainly through becoming glamour models or singers, in the case of girls, obviously!)

I do feel as if I should be entitled to not have my tastes dismissed as sour grapes because a song I have no respect for artisically has found more commercial success than one that I do.

Anyway, despite all this you will continue to enjoy AB's version and at least you won't have to run out of cafes everytime it comes on the radio!

Ho ho ho.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,Meggly
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 06:37 AM

Oh yeah, and the fact that Leonard won't get any royalties for this has removed my one consollation.

Silly b*gger.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Rasener
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 07:47 AM

Meggly
Of course you are. :-)
I just get the feeling at times that people are too dismissive of pop singers, especially from the folk world.

Anyway, I suupose we will get it sung a bit more at the folk clubs. Good one to join in with :-)

I hope you have a very nice Christmas Meggly

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 08:00 AM

Meggly - very well put. In your 3rd para, you've concisely expressed what I think too, much better than I've been able to. Thanks! :)

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST,Meggly
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 09:35 AM

Thanks Suegorgeous.

And a Merry Christmas to you too Villan (which ever version of Hallelujah we listen to!). And I agree in principle that some times we can all be a bit dismissive of 'out-groups'. I would qualify what I said earlier and add that I like to give musicians from any genre a listen and if they've really put some soul (with a small s) and individuality into it I generally like them (although I'm not completely objective and I find some musical genres a bit difficult to get into - but hey ho, we've all got our quirks).

*<:-)

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 10:03 AM

I would have thought that it will get sung less in folk clubs now :-(

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Rasener
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 11:09 AM

There we go. Will mudcatters sing this song at their local folk club?

Yes or no

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 11:35 AM

It was sung last night in ours!
The Midway, Stockport.
A very nice cover of the Jeff Buckley version, by Young Dave Hudson.(As opposed to Old Dave Hudson.)
Cheers
Peter

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 11:44 AM

I had planned to do it at a club I was due to attend a week ago Monday (great chorus club/great chorus song)but when my youngster told me the night before that X Factor had hi-jacked the song I decided on something else instead. I even had a jocular conversation on the night with another chap who I know sings it - us both saying that we'll have to drop it now!
So my answer is no - for the time being.
The first folk club I ever went to in 1966 and enquired about singing Bob Dylan songs the person running the club said no as their folk club was there to provide music "that you can't hear any time of the day that you switch your radio on"

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 01:38 PM

I've never worked out how to do it unaccompanied - 8 bars of chorus per 16 bars of verse, at a bare minimum of five or six verses, is a lot to ask of an audience when the chorus is that plain, and when there's nothing going on behind it but the occasional cough from the heating pipes.

But if I had, I wouldn't be doing it now. Like Dave's snotty organiser, I go to clubs to hear and sing songs they don't play on the radio (although obviously I don't think that excludes the entire Dylan oeuvre).

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 01:50 PM

Is Buckley's version getting played on the radio? (as much as any other no.2 record?) I don't listen to it, but would be interested to know.

I'm completely gutted to have learnt that LC is getting nothing out of this! I had been feeling so pleased for him, and that something good was coming out of this... :(

OK, it still is.... something beautiful and non-bland is near-topping the charts. :)

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: LesB
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 02:14 PM

I'm glad/ashamed to say i've not knowingly heard any of the main protaganists version. I know i've heard it some time ago but which version I don't know. I've managed to advoid X factor & rarely have the radio on.
Cop out eh?
Cheers
Les

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: LesB
Date: 25 Dec 08 - 10:03 AM

Just seen Alexandra's version on the box. Crap. A complete travisty.
Merry Crimbo
Les

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Dec 08 - 01:25 PM

Leonard might have sold his catalogue, publishing rights, but he should still cop PRS and 50% as a writer from Sony. I believe it's illegal to sell your writer's rights.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Neil D
Date: 26 Dec 08 - 12:49 AM

The version sung by Four Norwegian Guys on Youtube is very nice.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 13 May 09 - 03:13 PM

beautiful

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: NormanD
Date: 13 May 09 - 03:22 PM

Has Susan Boyle recorded it yet? I'm sure she will if Cowell has anything to do with it.

I don't think that Len gets much out of this song now, despite being the writer. Perhaps someone could confirm this, I did read a piece to this effect a while back. Cowell does get a lot, however, as he has interests in the publishing rights - which is why the song was chosen in the first place.

norman

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: Ron Davies
Date: 13 May 09 - 10:46 PM

Heard Buckley's version--one of them on YouTube.   Very effective. Good that he knows that less is more.

But it somewhat depends on whether you mind if the song belies the word.

Since I prefer the musical setting to affirm the word "Hallelujah" , not comment ironically on it--(though I'm not religious)-- I'm with Liz--Handel wins with "Messiah".   His "Hallelujah, Amen" (Judas Maccabeus, I think) is also good.

Subject: RE: Hallelujah- Which is the best version?
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 13 May 09 - 11:38 PM

Whomever posts all these links -- thank you!!!!!.....! I just listened to Buckley's version and about 19 versions of kdlangs and - while I am a huge Cohen fan, kd gets my vote on this one 10 times over.....what a woman and what a song