Favorite version of Hallelujah

Everyone seems to shrink in the presence of Little Richard

 

The four lads seem awestruck and to be shrinking violets in the presence of the original true King of Rock 'n' Roll, the creator of the fantastic fantasia of the rock star. They just want to touch the hem of his garment.

 

The 2 different versions of Hallelujah from Shrek (film and soundtrack respectively) made me re-appreciate this Cohen classic.

However, then it seemed the talent show brigade got hold of it and it became a must- sing and, for me, lost a bit of its mystique. This had also happened years previously for me here in the UK when Bridge Over Troubled Water got thrashed by numerous contestants.

Such over-exposure and literal ‘bandwagon’ popularity fiaded the sparkle for me a little, I think. Ironically, I did end up appreciating the delivery power of the winner of the talent show (Leona Lewis?) but felt the poignancy and emptiness of the original was a little lost.

What saved the song for me was the myriad of possible verses and the fact that it still possessed such great poetry. I learnt to see beyond performances and not let them deter me from finding the version that did it for me.

The song was the reason I bought and eventually revered Grace by Jeff Buckley.

I’ve overcome my cynicism of talent show hijacking now. Although I would think twice if I owned the rights to a decent song, about whether to let it be thrown to the lions, if you see what I mean.

 

I think the solution is to NOT spend any time watching TV talent shows, or most any TV for that matter.

Aside from all that, if I hear one singer or even many singers who do a less than heartfelt version of a particular song, it does not diminish my appreciation of that song in any way.

If that were the case, we would lose all appreciation for Gershwin, Porter and Berlin.

 

Love Hallelujah, but think its continued popularity through mainstream venues has overexposed it. I guess it's a good vocal showcase for a singer with real pipes, which has inevitably led to perfunctory covers by seemingly dozens of average singers.

As someone that still prefers Leonard's own singing of Hallelujah, I have learned to tune it out when the song pops up on television.

 

Completely agree. It's omnipresence has ruined it for me.

 

To me the song is the song, so the over-covering (covering over?) of it doesn't bother me. When I hear a version of it, I judge it on what it does with the song (starting with which of its possible variant forms it uses) and what it does to/for me.

As I said earlier in this thread, the song has a less fixed existence than a lot of other songs. There are 7 canonical verses, but no rules about which ones you "have to" sing (most follow Cale in including at least the first two from Cohen's original version in their original order, but Cohen himself excluded those two in performance for a while, and singers select from the other 5 pretty freely--there are also no rules about where the choruses have to go or how many times they can or can't be repeated). Still, the song is identifiably itself and survives under all those covers.....

L.

 

I am always interested in hearing a great performance of the song or a new approach to arrangement and accompaniment