Hallelujah

[apsham]

I have to go with Rufus Wainwright's, and what about the rest of you?

Edited December 1, 2007 by apsham

[Baddar]

If it's the song I'm thinking of, Alter Bridge/Myles Kennedy's live cover of it.

Can be found on Youtube.

[THEXTREMIST]

Ari Hest's or Jeff Buckley's. I really dislike Wainwright's arrangement of it.

[thuganomic]

Buckley's, definitely.

I also quite like Imogen Heap's version.

[Katsuya]

Wainwright's version is the best for me. Jeff Buckley's sounds far too over the place. It makes an already suicidal enough piece of music make me want to just kill myself there and then.

[thuganomic]

Wainwright's version is the best for me. Jeff Buckley's sounds far too over the place. It makes an already suicidal enough piece of music make me want to just kill myself there and then.

[Skummy]

I adore Leonard Cohen's original, and his live version. Obviously Buckley's is incredible, John Cale's is good, Rufus Wainwright's is rather good, if only because it's the lovely Rufus, but Cohen's beats them all in my opinion.

John Cale's version, which is the version Buckley covered and while not especially famous in itself has basically been the arrangement of the song that most versions since have followed so is worthy of mention just for that, is good, but has the same problems of most John Cale material in that he seems to have very consciously decided everything he wants to do from a technical perspective, and the emotion's lacking because of that, so it's very tricky to get behind.

Jeff Buckley's is incredible, it's a fantastic showcase of his amazing voice and of the intimacy he could control through just vocals and sparse, minimalist, but brilliant guitar playing. There are very few flaws in it.

Leonard Cohen's, however, is one of the most perfect songs ever recorded. Obviously by virtue of having written it, he gains some extra points, but even in performance I feel it's a stronger song. His voice is incredibly textured, so he gets across a lot more meaning than in any other version...Jeff Buckley's is almost too "angelic", which works with the Biblical overtones, but Buckley himself claimed it was about "the Hallelujah of orgasm", which Cohen's later performances were rather obviously referring to, and when Cohen sings "remember when I moved in you", it sounds dark and sleazy and menacing and all sorts of things, whilst Buckley sounds a little too perfect, and the line loses a lot of that meaning...so in essence Buckley's retains the choiral hymn-like essence of the song, but loses some of the darker side of it, whilst the combination of Cohen and his backing singers on his version manage to retain both sides of the song. With Cohen, it's a sexual release, a celebration of God, a celebration of life, a longing for lost love, a questioning of the self...there's so many layers to it, it's so complex, and no one since him has managed to put it across quite as well as he.

Wainwright's, while musically fantastic, suffers a little for a couple of reasons...it's essentially a straight cover of Cale's with no additional personality added to it, as Rufus was commissioned to record it for the Shrek soundtrack album when they had difficulty securing the rights to use Cale's version, whereas if Wainwright had recorded it of his own volition, I have a feeling he'd have recorded a much stronger interpretation without the constraints of having to stick to the John Cale arrangement.

Bob Dylan also did an interesting live rendition, omitting many of the verses and re-arranging a lot of it...it's more worth checking out as a musical curiosity than as a "good" cover version, but the rawness of it gives it a nice feel.

[Trey]

Buckley's, definitely.

I also quite like Imogen Heap's version.

[SeanDMan]

Rammstein.

[apsham]

I said Wainwright over Cale really, because I really felt there was more emotion in the voice... and my favorite part had far more build up and was pulled off a bit better, (the "she tied you to her kitchen chair" portion). Either way, I am trying to hunt down Cohen's version with all fifteen verses and then the live, overtly sexual one.

[thuganomic]

I said Wainwright over Cale really, because I really felt there was more emotion in the voice... and my favorite part had far more build up and was pulled off a bit better, (the "she tied you to her kitchen chair" portion). Either way, I am trying to hunt down Cohen's version with all fifteen verses and then the live, overtly sexual one.

[Clawson]

Cohen's version is the clear winner though Buckley's is also good. You just cannot beat Leonard's version of it though, ever.

[Benji]

I love the fact people are saying "[Person] is a clear winner" and yet they're clearly not since not everyone is saying the same one. Personally I like Buckley followed by Cohen and then various other versions.

Edited December 1, 2007 by Go Benji Casino

[GoGo Yubari]

Having finally listened to Wainwright's, I'm currently ordering them Cale > Buckley > Cohen > Wainwright, with the first three all being great in their own individual ways and Wainwright's not working for me at all for the reasons Skummy already provided.

Cale's is my favorite because even if I have minor quibbles with his mispronunciation of "Hallelujah" and not actually rhyming "you" with "Hallelujah" since he pronounces it as "you" instead of "ya," there's something about the combination of the weariness of his voice and the simplicity of his piano playing that gets me every time. Buckley's version is great but I felt it's just a little bit longer than it needs to be and whilst the music is absolutely beautiful, the production feels a little slick to me. Cohen's version is growing on me a lot, especially because of the choir he has singing the chorus with him, but I'm not a huge fan of sing-talking and the actual music doesn't grab me in the same way that Cale and Buckley's versions do.

[METALMAN]

Buckley's is by far my favourite version. It was the first one I heard and it has stuck with me. I've never really liked Cohen's original version as I'm not a huge fan of his voice. The gospel choir is fantastic though. Wainwright and Cale's versions are alright, but nowhere near as good as Buckley's for me.

[Tarheels.]

Buckley's is easily my favorite. I'm not sure why but I feel like Wainwright's version is just missing something in it. Don't get me wrong, Wainwright is a great singer but I just don't feel that his version is as good as Buckley's.

[Hobo]

I don't rate Jeff Buckley's version all that much, probably because I heard Leonard Cohen's version first. Buckley's like someone said above is very all over the place, his voice was great but Cohen's was just more textured, add to it that Cohen has two versions and they're both pretty different variations. There is an overall heavy feeling about the orginal version with Cohen's voice and the snyth, it can probably sound opressive to the Buckley fan. Cohen's version it's almost monontonous and monolithic but it's world weary.

Cale's version is a thing of beauty for me, it has the same world weariness of Cohen's but the variation of the lyrics and the piano transform it from a derge to a lament. Willie Nelson has an OK version, but Wainwright's is terrible. I've never heard a Rufus Wainwright song that didn't grate on me.

[Nerf]

I typed out a massive review of all the versions, then had a fucking power cut.

Jeff Buckley wins. I can't be arsed saying anything else.

[therockbox]

Paramore >_>

[Cactus Drags]

Paramore >_>