http://youtu.be/ckbdLVX736U
- Hallelujah was first released in 1984 on Leonard Cohen’s album, Various Positions.
- Cohen once told Bob Dylan that it took him two years to write the song.
- Dylan himself has sung it live, and there are bootleg versions in circulation of his performance. It has also been sung by Bono and Bon Jovi.
- More than 100 versions of the song have been recorded.
- The best known is by Jeff Buckley, whose unadorned version was on his 1994 Grace album.
- Cohen has recorded two versions – the second one appeared on a live album in 1988 – with very different endings; one upbeat, one dark.
- Buckley’s version was used in the soundtrack to the American TV series, The OC.
- Other TV shows to have used the song include The West Wing, ER, Scrubs, and Holby City.
- The full version of the song has 15 verses.
- Cohen, a notorious perfectionist, is said to have originally written 80 verses.
- Cohen is set to earn £1 million in royalties from sales of singles by X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke.
- Burke’s version is the fastest selling download single in history.
- Former Velvet Underground member John Cale’s version was used in the film Shrek.
- The Shrek soundtrack album featured a version by Rufus Wainwright, who also sang it in the Leonard Cohen tribute film, I’m Your Man.
- Cohen was once asked why the song is so popular. “It’s got a good chorus,” he replied.
- It has become a mainstay of live shows by Cohen’s fellow Canadian singer-songwriter, kd lang.
- The English singer and songwriter Kathryn Williams once introduced her version of Hallelujah in a live show by saying, “I really, really, really want to shag Leonard Cohen.”
- The song is broadcast at 2am every Saturday night by the Israeli defence force’s radio channel.
- Hallelujah is a Hebrew word, meaning “praise Yah”.
- Cohen has said of the song’s meaning: “It explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do exist, and all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have equal value.”
It was on a rather exceptional episode of “The West Wing” that I first heard this song. I was so taken by it, I had to find out more. From the credits to the show, I tracked down the Jeff Buckley version, and I can’t begin to count how many times I have listened to it over and over and over again.. I was so very disappointed to learn that such an extraordinary talent had died so young.
This is one of my all time favorite songs. While Leonard singing it is moving, there’s no performance like K.D. Langs. If it’s possible to wear out a track on my iPod – that will be the one. Absolutely magnificent.