The Hallelujah Chorus

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

[Poll #1315469]

I enjoyed both the X-Factor finalists' versions a lot more than I was expecting to. What occurred to me is that the lyrics aren't really designed to be sung in a power-soul style, but that actually this left me feeling a bit embarassed for the lyrics themselves*, not the singing or performance.

*and of course someone - Simon Cowell's? - selection from them: "Hallelujah" has about 50 billion verses so like American Pie any shortened cover versh will be a selection box.

Comments

[koganbot]

You all should read Mike Barthel's excellent piece about "Hallelujah":

"It Doesn't Matter Which You Heard": the Curious Cultural Journey of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"

What's fascinating about all this is not simply the song's ubiquity on TV dramas - it's that it's used in the exact same way every time. Songs can be used sincerely, ironically, as background shading, as subtle comment, as product placement. But "Hallelujah" always appears as people are being sad, quietly sitting and staring into space or ostentatiously crying, and always as a way of tying together the sadness of different characters in different places. In short, it's always used as part of a "sad montage."

(Mike's piece also contains excellent graphs.)

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

ha, any time hallelujah pops up ANYWHERE i think about Mike!

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

(Wainwright's is nearly indistinguishable from Cale's, suggesting that perhaps Cale had begun to refuse usage requests and Wainwright was brought in as a ringer.)

The interesting thing about this is that it predates the OC and Scrubs surge - while it's Cale on the soundtrack to Shrek, it's Wainwright on the soundtrack album.