So today history was made, as Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah went in at No 1 (Alexandra Burke) and No 2 (Jeff Buckley) in the Christmas charts in the UK, and with the original version at No 36. Some of us tried to make the Buckley version No 1, tried and failed, failed gloriously; remember it made No 2 on download sales alone, unlike Alex’s version.
It was worth it: from what I’ve gathered so far, it looks as if Leonard Cohen will earn over $2m in royalties from the week’s sales, with more to come. Given that he’s 74, given that he was allegedly cleaned out of his savings by his erstwhile business manager, that he sued her, Kelley Lynch, and won $9m in damages, that he has apparently not collected a red cent from her since; given all this, one could surmise he’s not rolling in it. So the money’s going to come in useful. [Yes, he’s under new management since!].
With the song so much in the news, I kept hearing that there were over a hundred versions of the song recorded; not as many as for Suzanne, but a substantial number anyway. Now I believe that the Buckley version is outstanding; Cohen is rumoured to have told Buckley’s mother that once he heard Buckley, he never needed to sing the song again. But that does not mean that other versions are awful, there are many different treatments, each to their own. I thought there must be a definitive list: but when I looked around, I could not find one.
So I thought I’d build one up and put it on Wikipedia, with as much detail as possible. Could you take a look at the list below and help me crowdsource this task? I promise to take all the inputs and load it up over the holidays, as a labour of love. If one of you would prefer to do it instead, be my guest, just let me know.
- Jeff Buckley
- Leonard Cohen
- John Cale
- KD Lang
- Gord Downie
- Daisy Chapman
- Espen Lind, Askil Holm, Alejandro Fuentes, Kurt Nilsen
- Rufus Wainwright
- Nora Foss al Jabri
- Regina Spector
- Bob Dylan
- Willie Nelson (Ryan Adams and the Cardinals)
- Alexandra Burke
- Imogen Heap
- Katherine Jenkins
- Anthony Michael Hall
- Kathryn Williams
- Allison Crowe
- Happy Mondays
- Diana Vickers
- Fall Out Boy
- Bono
- Blake
- Il Divo
- Barrel House Mamas
- Patricia O’Callaghan
- Bon Jovi
- Christina Marie
- Dresden Dolls
- Damien Rice
- Sheryl Crow
- The Junebugs
- Tony Lucca
- Elisa
- Chris Botti
- Clare Bowditch (Australian)
- Eric Beverly
- Erik Flaa
- Euan Morton and Denise Summers
- Arooj Aftab
- Gavin de Graw
- Jack Lukeman
- John Jerome
- Kate Noson
- K’s Choice
- Late Tuesday
- Lucky Jim
- Macbrolan
- Ari Hest
- Street to Nowhere
- Jennifer Terran
- Brandi Carlile
- Jay Clifford
- Gord Downie (Tragically Hip) duplicate
- Steffen Brandt and Tina Dickow (in Danish)
- Ulf Lundell (in Swedish)
- Enrique Morente (Spanish, flamenco style)
- Brigyn (in Welsh)
- Espen Lind, Askil Holm, Alejandro Fuentes, Kurt Nilsen duplicate
- Nosfell and Jane Birkin
- Susanna and the Magical Orchestra
- Kevin Max (DC Talk)
- Alex Lloyd (Australian)
- Eugenio Finardi (in Italian)
- Blue Jupiter
- Myles Kennedy
- Lincoln Brewster
- Alpha Rev (Casey McPherson, Austin)
- Sara Gazarek
- Jennifer Scott
- Peter Joback (in Swedish)
- Kermit
- Zach Wiedeman
- Birchwood Band
- Blumfeld (in German)
- Michael McDonald
- Glenn Hansard (The Frames/The Swell Season)
- Jason Castro
- Kate Voegele
- David Bazan
- Zach Condon (performs as Beirut)
- I Am The Lost Sea
- Karen Ann
- Noam Peled (Israeli)
- Naomi Hates Humans
- Christine Collister
- Amanda Jenssen
- Paramore
- Advent Children
- Krystal Meyers
- Lucy Lawless
- Alter Bridge duplicate, same as Myles Kennedy
- Martin Sexton
- Pain of Salvation
- Amanda Palmer
- Tim Minchin
- Phil Wickham
- Vocal Line
- Sharon Janis
- Robin Olson
- Popa Chubby
- Rea Garvey
- JLS
- Eoghan Quigg
- Lisa Hordijk
- Tangerine Dream
- Bobby Andonov
I stopped at 100, I am sure there are many more. I’ve taken care to make sure that all versions that predate 1984 and therefore couldn’t possibly be the same song are removed from the list, whether it’s from Handel’s Messiah or even from the Deep Purple one. Similarly I’ve excised all of the Lordi and other Hard Rock variations that are unrelated to the Cohen one. There is a rumour that Prince once recorded it, but I have not been able to find anything to back that up; there is evidence that he sang it but none of his recording it.
Incidentally, I spent some time going through a number of sites on the web to get this far. So if you want to listen to any of the versions, you’re best off visiting these sites first: here, where there’s a fine post on the subject, here, where there’s a good discussion, and of course YouTube.
[My thanks to www.sweetandbitter.com for the silhouette image].