Hallelujah (song)

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For other uses, see Hallelujah (disambiguation).

"Hallelujah"

Song by Leonard Cohen
from the album Various Positions
Released	December, 1984
Recorded	June 1984
Genre	Folk-rock
Length	4:39
Label	Columbia Records, Passport Records
Writer(s)	Leonard Cohen
Producer(s)	John Lissauer
Various Positions track listing
"Night Comes On" (4)	"Hallelujah" (5)	"The Captain" (6)

"Hallellujah"

Song by Jeff Buckley
from the album Grace
Released	1994
Recorded	Bearsville Recording Studio, Woodstock, NY (Fall 1993)
Genre	Rock
Length	6:53
Label	Columbia
Producer(s)	Jeff Buckley Andy Wallace
Grace track listing
"So Real" (5)	"Hallellujah" (6)	"Lover, You Should've Come Over" (7)

"Hallelujah" is a song written by Leonard Cohen. It was first recorded on his 1984 album Various Positions.

1 Cover versions
2 Movie and TV soundtracks
3 Lyrics
4 Chart rankings
5 Chord progression
6 External links

[edit] Cover versions

Though more recent versions are starting to gain favor, perhaps the most acclaimed cover of the song to date is the John Cale-influenced take by the late American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley from the 1994 album Grace, a sparse production of vocals and guitar. It is certainly the most-marketed version - appearing in numerous tv and film episodes, and on several Buckley CDs. Numerous subsequent covers are in the vein of this recording, which is similar to the earlier recording by John Cale, featuring vocals and piano and which appears on the 1991 Leonard Cohen tribute album I'm Your Fan.

John Cale's version was featured in the 2001 animated film Shrek. Rufus Wainwright covered the song as well, and his would appear on the film's soundtrack album (while Cale's was absent). This is apparently because Wainwright is signed with Dreamworks SKG and Cale is not^{[citation needed]}. However, Wainwright's version is largely inspired by Cale's take on the song. The score for Shrek was also influenced by the song^{[citation needed]}.

Among the many other musicians who have performed covers of this song are Myles Kennedy, Maxwell Murder/Saturday's Car Ride Home, Jeff Martin, Alex Lloyd, Willie Nelson, Elisa, Bono, Bob Dylan, Clare Bowditch, Fred Eaglesmith, Steve Acho, Allison Crowe, Patricia O'Callaghan, David Bazan, Jackie Greene, Ryan Adams, Fiona Apple, Julie Felix, Damien Leith, Anthony Michael Hall [1], Bettie Serveert, Custard, k.d. lang, Kevin Max, Gord Downie, Steffen Brandt/Tina Dico (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, Myrra Malmberg, Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, Imogen Heap and Hilary Scott. Fall Out Boy sampled the song on their 2007 album Infinity on High, on the track "Hum Halleujah".

The West did a cover of the song on the "4 Song EP" titling it "Song For Leonard".

Alistair Griffin also performed a cover of this song as well as recording a version with modified lyrics referencing the Middlesbrough Football Club player Mark Viduka. Leonard Cohen has now given permission for the song to be released as a charity download, to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Counting live performances, the list includes Ari Hest, Brandi Carlile, 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, Alter Bridge, Pain of salvation, and Sheryl Crow. 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. 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.

[edit] Movie and TV soundtracks

"Hallelujah" is frequently used in television and movies during sad or tragic scenes. It has been used in movies as diverse as Basquiat, The Edukators (Die Fette Jahre Sind Vorbei), A Lot Like Love, Shrek (in which sexual content is edited out), 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, 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, and Numb3rs. It was also used in the Third Watch and Without a Trace episodes dealing with the 9/11 events.

[edit] Lyrics

With each different musical interpretation of Cohen's song, it is interesting to note how the lyrics have changed and evolved. However, although individual words do change between various versions, most of the variation may be more due to selection than actual change. 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."

When Cohen recorded the song in 1984 and 1988, he probably made different selections from these verses. As for the latter version, it is not the first time he has performed song verses live that are not on any studio album.

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). Typically for Cohen, the lyrics, in addition to being metaphorical, are also multilayered; one line calls King David "the baffled king", a reference not only to David's confusion, but also to his title "the Battle King".

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 indicated a yearning without the religious overtones, and the music was slighty reworked. Many cover artists tend to mix both versions (using the original melody), as well as occasionally add their own touches (such as Wainwright singing "holy dark" instead of "holy dove"). Cale, and later Buckley, admittedly mixed the different lyrics, which gave the work a very different touch—the new combination of lyrics giving a mixture of religious, romantic, sexual and existential tone to the song.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Chord progression

The chord progression of the verses is:

I–vi–I–vi

IV–V–I–V

I–IV,V–vi–IV

V–V/vi-vi–vi

Part of it is described by the self-referential first verse about the "secret chord": "It goes like this (I), the fourth (IV), the fifth (V), the minor fall (vi) and the major lift (IV)". The chorus goes IV–vi–IV–I,V–I–V.