Favorite version of Hallelujah

Pain of Salvation do a good hard edged version. But like all great songs it is very hard to ruin it...

 

Went with my boy Jeff, but I also really love John Cale's. Cale's inspired Jeff's version and became the more well known style of the song

 

Thank you.

 

Jeff Buckley
Followed by John Cale and then Leonard's.

 

Altho I'm continually amazed at Jeff's version I saw KD's version during the Winter Olympics opening ceremonies, with the big rig cranked. I was, and still am, Gobsmacked by the power of that performance. My sis n law had never heard the song and was literally moved to tears.

 

Cohens is the only one that I like. The other versions didn't do much for me

 

John Cale. Imo no one else manages to convey the mix of pain and beauty as well. Sounds like he's lived the song, while Buckley's and others are just about a nice vocal performance. Also, Cale's version is the one that everyone covers, so he deserved credit for that too. Cale asked Cohen for the lyrics and received 20 verses, from which he selected three that are not in Cohen's own version:

Maybe I've been here before.
I know this room, I've walked this floor.
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch.
Love is not a victory march,
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah.

There was a time you'd let me know
What's real and going on below.
But now you never show it to me, do you?
Remember when I moved in you?
The Holy Dove was moving too.
And every breath we drew was hallelujah.

Maybe there's a God above.
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you.
It's not a cry you can hear at night.
It's not somebody who's seen the light.
It's a cold and its a broken hallelujah.

 

Jeff Buckley

 

Cohen's own version, the studio version from Various Positions. I love the low, booming synth vibe, the gorgeous choir, the crispy clearness of the voice which serves this beacon of light of a song very, very well. Especially remember putting it on a CD-R on a road trip to the ocean one day years back and it really filled up the flat, dry January landscape. Had just gotten into Cohen at that time... Hallelujah brought me to Cohen's music.

So I went with Cohen's original. Only know Jeff's superficially and the others I haven't really heard... But somehow I don't feel like I need to. But I'll check them out eventually.

 

She posted this on Face Book yesterday.

 

The girl can sing....

 

As I have said before this song reduces me to a puddle regardless of the singer. I literally fell to my knees when KD Lang sang it, and Neil Diamond both did wonderful versions but I think this one is my favorite

 

Neil Diamond

 

I vote Leonard but love also the Rufus version... the Shrek one...

 

The live Leonard I'm referencing (any later era live version from him really though...)...


And, also being a huge fan of John Cale's cover, it's nice to see folks pointing out his arrangement/vision of it is where lots of others went afterwards...

 

I probably had heard it before, but I didn't pay attention until I heard Jeff Buckley's version on the radio about a year ago. Buckley's version is probably #1.

I also like two live versions not yet mentioned:

Choir! Choir! Choir! featuring Rufus Wainwright, recorded live in Toronto on June 11, 2016:



Brandi Carlile at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony, recorded November 2010 and released May 2011:

Brandi Carlile Hallelujah »

 

And that live version is my pick for best.

 

Went w/kd's. And saw her do it live--outstanding!

 

You may be referring to the version she did at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics - it has to be the best I have seen yet.

 

It's such a great song it almost doesn't matter who sings it. Kate McKinnon sang it in SNL and it was very moving (they obviously used it for more reasons than one).

I prefer Jeff Buckley's version. But this week hearing Leonard sing it can bring me to tears.

 

Have to go with the writer....beautiful song

 

I really enjoy the Marcy Playground rendition.

 

I voted Buckley, but having just watched last night's SNL, I'll give this an honorable mention:

 

Jeff Buckley

 

Alexandra Burke's is the only good one. The others are crap imo.