In 1984 Leonard Cohen, notorious singer-songwriter and all-around talented guy, wrote a now famous song called Hallelujah. While difficult to get released in the beginning (see CBC interview) this song went on to eclipse, if you’ll forgive the artistic license, every song except Happy Birthday and How Great Thou Art in interpretations and performances. I fell in love with this song a few years ago when I heard Jeff Buckley’s version, as recommended by a good friend. I had no idea of the rich and illustrious background of Hallelujah; but I did know that it would be one of my favorite songs for the rest of my life.

I’d like to highlight briefly the lyrics of the song because learning more about the imagery that Cohen borrows really helps to add significance to the song.  Most of it ties around two interesting figures from the Old Testament: David and Samson. While entirely unrelated, save for the pesky-Philistines, both characters experienced very similar life stories. They experienced selection by God (David selected as the King of Israel, Samson a savior to the Jews under Philistine rule), great feats and love of God (David slew Goliath, Samson killed quite a few), failure and destruction in the face of temptation (David and Bathsheba “saw her bathing on the roof”, Samson and Delilah “she cut your hair”), and eventual return to faith and redemption after their great suffering.

The last point is rough to go into as Samson is tortured and forced to live in slavery until he sees the inside of a temple collapse, and he was lucky. David did more dubious things after the Bathsheba incident (read up on Uriah the Hittite), and his kingdom fell apart: the child born out of wedlock dies, his third son rebels and is killed, his oldest son rapes his daughter and is killed, and many other trials. David’s and, to a lesser degree, Samson’s stories are incredibly tragic, but the significance comes in the height from which they fell…from absolute favor with their God. David, as the song points out, is often thought of as communing directly with God through the Psalms that he wrote. Without knowledge of the great peaks and depths that these men experienced it’s hard to understand the complications of ‘the Hallelujah’ that Cohen brings out.

“…But love is not a victory march, It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah.”

For a while I’ve been trying to find a list of all the major (and a few minor) versions of this classic. Finding them was interesting enough, but trying to rank them has been almost impossible. Still, I’ve built a completely subjective list. You can listen to them individually, or listen to the whole playlist (in reverse order).

1. Jeff Buckley – Hands down winner every time
2. Alexandra Burke – Went back to the original with the chorus, but modern flare. Lot of credit.
3. Allison Crowe -Piano is underwhelming, and the end gets a bit crazy (“And IT IS A” tell me if you notice it)
4. K.D. Lang – She slides into eeEEvry sssSIiingle nnNOote.
5. Brandi Carlile – Not a great voice, but her spirit is locked in
6. Kate Voegele – EDIT: Forgot about Kate! Really crisp, but her voice gets in the way in spots.
7. Justin Timberlake et als. – Some flaws in the recording, too many frills and poor harmonies
8. John Cale – His air control seems lacking in spots
9. Imogen Heap – A capella  is bold, and lovely voice, I just need more
10. Bon Jovi – Listen to how he hugs the mic
11. Rufus Wainwright – Really, this should be better, but it sounds like he’s reading the lyrics fo-net-ick-ly
12. Willie Nelson – Yeah.
13. Le0nard Cohen – The original, I think this is purely a style problem. I like the digital age too much.
14. Charity Mondok – Don’t know who she is, but her’s is pretty, pretty bad.

If you’ve got modifications to the list I’d love to hear them; I don’t know if anyone else is that interested.

As an aside, Cohen said, in that same CBC interview, “I was just reading a review of a movie…and the reviewer said – ‘Can we please have a moratorium on Hallelujah in movies and television shows?’ And I kind of feel the same way. I think it’s a good song, but I think too many people sing it. I think people ought to stop singing it for a little while.”