OK, so what's your standpoint on the X-Factor winner getting to sing "Hallelujah" as their valedictory winsong single?

#2 with a bullet

put this in the other thread:

Am I the only one who thinks that Hallelujah is

a)a brilliant song to pick for the sort of faux-holy triumphalism that usually characterizes the winner's song

and

b) not surprising or newly 'demeaning' at all given the song's place in recent culture as catch-all signifier of faux-holy significance?

― Manchego Bay (G00blar), Monday, December 1, 2008 11:21 AM (9 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Well, I was going to say, it's just a longer version of "Oh, darling Grace I love your face I've seen you in you nightie When the moonlight flits Across your tits, oh jesus christ almighty" as per the second world war song, more recently interepreted by Derek and Clive.

― Mark G, Monday, 1 December 2008 11:24 (24 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

It's like spinning sets of plates, this!

I think it most suits Diana in the fact that its kinda understated (for the most part) and if done properly, she could pull it off. The rest would try and make a big spectacle out of it and make a giant mess. I don't understand why the hell they can't pick seperate songs for each of them (or craaaaaaazy idea, write an original for them like Girls Aloud had.)

Diana did it as here audition piece.

Which is where the controversy has been artificially manufactured fanned.

Long-winded but relevant.

I can't wait to hear hedgehog boy's version of this.

http://www.clapclap.org/pics/coversgraph.jpg

nicked from above link

(xpost) it would be fantastic if he used the schoolboy lyrics ("teacher wacked me with a ruler", etc.). Actually, no, wait a minute, it would be crap.

Gooblar OTM really.

is this because katherine jenkins sings it on her new album? (see tv adverts)

I am strongly in favor of anything that earns Leonard Cohen money

Yeah, but Ktherine Jenekins though?

I mean, she seems nice enough, and I wish her no harm, but blimey, when she sings! It's like a car alarm going off!

When she sang that dueet with rhydian, all the peoeple's locateable keyrings got found!

Damn scronky e key!

Curious link, gooblar, but a good one. Personally, I'd prefer the X-Factor winner to sing 'So Real', just to hear what the hell they would do with the line "We walked around til the moon got full, like a plate"

The paper I linked to is by ex-ILXor Eppy.

I fucking love it and Cohen's life is so messed up anyway - I like that clip "you don't care for music doooooo yoooooooo" - doesn't rhyme but my god how poignant. Let's get "So Long, Marianne" and - who knows! - "Everybody Knows" - via Snow Patrol maybe - on their radar too and you bet Cohen's lonely old cock will be surrounded by $$$$$, which is what is really needed, for LA MUSE.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

No one seems to get this song except Cohen himself. I'm just glad they haven't done this to "Tower of Song." I'd be happy to see them try it with "Chelsea Hotel No. 2," though.

I played an instrumental version of this at a friend's wedding, at their request! It was at a Mennonite church and there was no liquor allowed, which made it harder to excuse my three-hour solo.

whoa

Well, after much thought, what could possibly be better for the X Factor winner to do? A song they don't disown a year into their up-and-running career? Or their highlight in their stalled career?

Went for 3.

Needs an option for "Stupid boring idea" so I guess 4 is closest to that.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Can I change my mind?

didnt mind the arrangement of this too much apart from when it became a bloated power ballad half way through.

jls's version was better than alexandras in any case.

vile

can't be worse than the original... can it?

right, I know Jeff Buckley's version is strong but I'm needing proof.
I raised the ladder to the loft
and dug out "Live at Sin'e" to play to Amber and Alice this morning,and their reaction I'll relay to yer.

The song was long, and the journey short
and we got less through it than we thought
but there was enough to see how it eneded to yer..

and they thought it good music to relax
Amber thought that Alex did it best
putting more of herself into the ending, true? yeah?

OK, packing that.

I put the track on, it starts with a fair bit of guitar widdling, so I askeed them if they recognised it. Amber said she didn't know, Alice started singing right on cue. She's damn good, you know.

Anyway, they liked it a lot, although they did think Alexandra's version was better. But they had liked JLS best.

Oh yeah, and now the Jeff Buckley version is the first official hit of this song.

In the T-D household, we took the opposite line: JLS did the better version (still awful, but at least there were occasional faint glimpses of empathy with the lyrics), but Alexandra was our favourite of the three finalists (although she needs to drop her "Now I'm holding up four fingers - now I'm holding up five!" routine in the first verse with immediate effect).

She should do a comedy pratfall for the words "minor fall"...

From the HMV site:

Hallelujah Top 5
1. Jeff Buckley  - Hallelujah - £0.69 
2. Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah  £0.69 
3. Nick Cave     - Hallelujah  £0.69 
4. Katherine Jenkins Hallelujah £0.69 
5. Paramore        Hallelujah - £0.69

No Happy Mondays?

no can eh rite

(I believe that number five on that list isn't the same song)

Poor old John Cale

I find the Alexandra version inexplicably hilarious. I think it's the iconoclast in me.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7783704.stm

Here's a 'spot the version' BBC Quiz.

(I was expecting this to be on University Challenge)

Buckley #3 in the midweeks, Cohen in the top 40 (although I'm not sure whether that's the studio version or the superior live version).

That would be Cohen's first-ever top 40 hit, btw.

Buckley #3 in the midweeks

Dancing here.

Cohen in the top 40

More dancing.

I had a 1,000,000 to one bet at ladbrokes that Simon Cowell would be responsible for Lenoard Cohen having three hits at christmas!

OK, slight exaggeration for comic effect.

"Lenoard" !

That's Lenoard "the Tabard" Cohen, natch.

BBC Quiz.

7 out of 8 suckaz!!!

I let myself off for dropping a point, because who can tell the difference between Il Divo, Blake, and G4 anyway?

I got 6 out of 8, but cannot play sound here.

7 out of 8. Never liked the song, but lenny's is the best. would like to hear cale's version though.

I let myself off for dropping a point, because who can tell the difference between Il Divo, Blake, and G4 anyway?

yeah me too. :'( I don't think I've even heard of Blake.

I would've liked to see this on University Challenge last night, since I got pretty much nothing.

I guessed Blake, fwiw.

So, after all this, the question remains:

How on earth did SCowell suddenly decide, totally out of his comfort zone, that doing a song that admittedly has not been a big hit as such, but probably, given the right exposure, become as ubiquitous as "Angels", is this one?

Well, I found this headline of Jeff Buckley's official website.

JEFF BUCKLEY’S “HALLELUJAH”

BECOMES AMERICA’S NUMBER ONE

DIGITAL SONG

JASON CASTRO’S AMERICAN IDOL PERFORMANCE OF

“HALLELUJAH” PROPELS JEFF BUCKLEY’S 1994 RECORDING

TO THE TOP OF THE ITUNES SINGLES CHART

A CRUCIAL SONG FROM HIS 1994 DEBUT ALBUM GRACE

BECOMES JEFF BUCKLEY’S FIRST U.S. NUMBER ONE

kd lang's version is my favourite.

it's really easy not to hear this/these thank god.

kind of 'mad world' redux innit.

I've never heard Lenny's version!

me neiver. (the bit i have heard of it is terrible.) i've only ever heard j-buck's.

I don't know if I've ever heard that either, the thought of it makes me cringe.

i've only ever heard j-buck's.

You've never seen "Shrek"?

Lookin' sharp, Lenny

that is truly awful

that english chick singing was fucking dreadful

seriously nrq you are deaf

i like early cohen! the production there is crapola is all.

Eh, it works well, the bass makes these sardonic comments as well as shaping the melody, and cohen's vocal is fantastic. the synth chords are good too.

Having knocked up this handy at-a-glance lyrical guide yesterday, I'm cross-posting it from the Rolling UK Charts thread:

http://troubled-diva.com/hallelujah.jpg

Kathy Burke covered "Hallelujah"?

It's interesting how quickly a song can go from obscurity to ubiquity in 2 weeks. Has this happened like this since "Yesterday" made side 2 of the Help ablum?

As I sit here, I hear ABurke's version floating by.

My journey home is probably going to be soundtracked by JBuck's Live at Sin'e 2CD set, ....

How many more times today, and by whom, I wonder?

(fwiw, only heard it once yesterday)

um, just that once.

Right: Chart today!

From the MOKB Covers Project, the original and 39 covers of Hallelujah

My favorite version is by Susanna & the Magical Orchestra on Melody Mountain (2006). Produced by Deathprod.

And linked on the same page:

Recording of BBC Radio 2 Hallelujah documentary,The Fourth, The Fifth, The Minor Fall.

http://rapidshare.com/files/161391880/PraisetheLord.zip

The Minor Fall.

Featuring Mark (e) Smith?

You should have said Marc Riley and the Creepers.

i should have, yep.

Not even close: Burke 576,000 copies sold; Buckley 81,000

Hardly surprising.

Leonard Cohen timed this song for the sunset at Glastonbury this year, the fucker.

See, this is the sort of thing TOTP should be covering.

A bit of Len's, a lot of Jeff's and a full play of Alexandra's...

No "remember when I moved in you/and the holy dove was moving too/and every breath we drew was Hallelujah", no credibility.

Yeah, but the "shot someone who outdrew you", so...

"you don't really care for music, do you" ftw

This whole saga can be summed up as: "lol britishes lol"

Poor old John Cale

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Tom D.), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 12:56

I know. As far as I can tell he's responsible for all this Hallelujah-mania. Jeff Buckley was actually covering his version of the song. Then that dreadlocks guy covered the Buckley version on American Idol. Simon Cowell loves it and gets the idea to use it in one of his other shows and now it's an enormous hit. I think Cale's version is still the best though, but no one seems to mention it much.