I shall answer you! This shitty version wich you could compare to a hymn in a church is a shitty version watched from a musical point of view. As the numbers of the views can tell you: 1. Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah 70 000 000 views. 2. Rufus wainwright - Hallelujah 11 000 000 views. 3. Alexandra Burke - Hallelujah 41 000 000 views. 4. Bon Jovi - Hallelujah 30 000 000 views. 5. Susan Boyle - Hallelujah 19 000 000 views. 6. K.D. Lang - Hallelujah 12 000 000 views. AND THEN COMES THIS ONE WICH YOU THINK IS THE BEST VERSION: 7. John Cale - Hallelujah 8 000 000 views. And these views are about with the truth. Jeffs version is the best one. Only change for me is that Rufus comes next. Your bad music taste is caused by your IQ. You understand too little of music so your music taste mirrors that. Maybe someday it will change for the better way. -Your Master
Rod Ferreira Your master just did proof that your music taste is BAAAAD.. So theres no need to get angry. Just listen more music and study it. You can compare music and movies. Bad movies never win the oscar, just like bad songs on youtube gets small amount of viewers.
+Teuvo Ihalainen Actually, Rod is right, dude. I don't think this version is the best one either, but all he said is true. Logic and musical intelligence have nothing to do with each other. And you should know your point of view may be not the same as other people's, so you should at least respect them. You're just a kid disrespecting people on the internet. Rod, don't feed the troll, buddy.
Every time I hear this song, every version, I feel something different. There is no right way to sing this song; it is one of the best songs to bring out emotions. Hallelujah to everyone who sings or hears this song.
+TechnicalOtaku - John Cale's version is more earnest spare direct and beautiful, like an old Church song or anthem, while Jeff Buckley's more or less copies the Cale interpretation with a more ballad-y & pretty, less starkly emotional approach. Cale's version demands more from the listener, and hearing it along with the movie is definitely compelling.
Hey there. Former Catholic now Atheist. I will forever long this version of this song. I hope by me saying this, us Atheist give you Catholics / Christians a different view of us. I agree there are a lot of ignorant Atheist and I dislike them also. I don't bash my former religion or any religion. Just leave peaceful among my fellow people on this planet called Earth. Everyone lives their own life and no one should judge!
As a fellow atheist, I wish that we could be seen as simply "those who do not believe in a god" as opposed to "those angry kids rejecting their forced Sunday School/Catechism." As with believers, we are each individuals with our own unique views on life and life's greatest questions. I personally don't mind anyone who professes a belief so long as it isn't infringing upon my decision against such a choice. I just want us all to love one another.
Laura McLean I am christian but i have atheist friends. There are many Christian who will try to infringe their beliefs on non believers. Conversely there are many atheists who insult christians for their beliefs. Just agree to disagree
Being a man of 40 at the time, the first time I heard this song, I cried. I could not get over how someone put into words exactly how I felt about love, "it's not a cry at night, it's not somebody who has seen the light, it's a cold and broken halelujah". And the raw...power and beauty of this man's voice....it was hard to explain to the wife exactly why it touched me so.....and like all great art, you just can't explain it in a trillion words....
I like Cale's version best, not because he's the greatest singer, but he sings it straight, which the astounding lyrics deserve. This was also the first notable cover of the song.
This is still my favourite version of the song. I have listened to many versions of this song, but John Cale is stil the best, the others can’t hold a candle to him.
Well, Wikipedia is technically correct, it's just that people don't read it right. It says, and this is copied and pasted directly from the page, "Performed by Rufus Wainwright whose cover of the Leonard Cohen song is on the soundtrack album, but the film version is by John Cale." I take it that most people stop reading after they see "performed by Rufus Wainwright."
I've heard there was a secret chord That David played and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do you? It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing HallelujahHallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah HallelujahYour faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you She tied you to a kitchen chair She broke your throne, she cut your hair And from your lips she drew the HallelujahHallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah HallelujahBaby, I've been here before I know this room, I've walked this floor I used to live alone before I knew you I've seen your flag on the Marble Arch Love is not a victory march It's a cold and it's a broken HallelujahHallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah HallelujahThere was a time you let me know What's really and going on below But now you never show it to me, do you? I remember when I moved in you The holy dove was moving too And every breath we drew was HallelujahHallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah HallelujahMaybe there's a God above And All I ever learned from love Was how to shoot at someone who out drew you And it's not a cry you can hear at night It's not somebody who's seen the light It's a cold and it's a broken HallelujahHallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah HallelujahHallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Songwriters ZEKLEY, GARY/BOTTLER, MITCH/KENT, WAYNE DOUGLAS
I find this song - any version of it, really - something that just doesn't go cliché. When a composition is this good, it's just good, there's not much else to say about it.
Just in case you don't know or are curious, he literally plays a fourth and 5th chord when he says it, and he literally plays a minor and a major chord when he says it.
+ChannelNameIntentionallyLeftBlank "Jeff Buckley's cover is more famous..." What is with that? Buckley is weak vocally, he brings Nothing to this song at all. Best if he hadn't bothered. Like Justin Timberlake, the reason for his fame escapes me...
What I like better about this version is the way he pronounces Hallelujah. I don't know how to explain it, but it is different than the Rufus' version.
I like to think its because even though he has lived away for so many decades, John Cale still speaks with a Dyfed accent (county in Wales, now called Carmarthenshire). John Cale is certainly one of our (nation of Wales) best exports. I live in Llandybie, about 6 miles from his birthplace of Garnant. A truly beautiful region in the foothills of the Brecon Beacons national Park.
Best version so far. I would love to hear someone with a deep bass voice sing it like John Cale without all the extra stuff so many others feel the need to add.
Brandon hamby I always tell people if a sing can be covered by many artists and all versions are good, you wrote a great song. Not many can do thus, this song is one of the few. I have yet to hear a version I do not like.
+Brandon hamby "Such a solid song no matter who sings it" I disagree, there are many tolerable versions of this song. There are No Great versions. Even Leonard Cohen's version is lacking. It cries out for a David Draiman to do what he did with Sounds of Silence. Nobody has given That level of power and intensity to this masterpiece. Yet.
I love this song. I love Leonard Cohen's version, k.d. lang's version, Jeff Buckley's version. But I always come back to this one. It just seems perfect. If you ever taught a class in songwriting, just give them this song.
I think he does a fantastic version. He's one of the few covers who actually stay true to the song and don't just sing it because it's popular and sounds 'artsy'. It's one of those beautiful songs that has been beaten to death by far too many mediocre, corny covers. If you're a musician and you want to cover a Cohen song, you better think long and hard about if you can actually add anything to Hallelujah. If you can't, there's about 50 or 60 other masterpieces he's come out with that you can take a swing at without coming off as pretentious.
After departing the Velvets in late 68, Cale went on to produce milestone albums of Nico, The Stooges, The Modern Lovers, Patti Smith, Happy Mondays and many more. In his almost 5 decades of recorded music Cale has covered and explored almost every genre in music, be it alternative, classical, country, electronic, experimental, jazz pop, rock , or world music, so that every album is a different musical experience. He´s a master in rearranging hid music in so many different styles and moods.
one of my favorite songs ever. beautiful. and in so many ways, so true, it really gets to your heart. and in my opinion, out of every version I've ever heard of it, John Cale is the best
This song brings so many emotions, longing, happiness, sadness, all of it. My family is really big on family movie nights, and when this would play in shrek, my whole fam sings along. I want to be a little girl again listening to this beautiful song. Now my brothers are in college, and my last bros is heading off for college next year.
Several collaborations have linked him with the likes of Eno, David Byrne, Siouxsie, Nick Cave, J. D. Bradfield, Suzanne Vega, Marc Almond, Nick Drake, William S Burroughs... Lou Reed, Cale´s old foe once quoted: I only hope one day Cale will be recognized as the Beethoven or something of his day. He knows so much about music, he´s completely mad! Last but not least Cale represented Wales last year at the Venice Biennale. So much to John Cale´s talents. And how does Buckley copare to this?
I was just looking up how to spell the word and then I read an article in the Times online that commemorated Leonard Cohen and that article had a link to this. I have been looping it and listening to the lyrics and for some reason...this song just feels right. I wish I was intelligible enough to do my true feelings and this song justice but that's pretty much how things go when one is in that place...then this song plays and it hits you like a soft kiss by a warm fire. Consider me melted...
Btw, you guys do know "hallelujah" means: "God be praised" (uttered in worship or as an expression of rejoicing): "He is risen! Alleluia!" It's a word that remains the same thing in every language. This song used it completely out of the word's original meaning. But don't get me wrong. It's a really nice song. Just saying cuz most don't really know what it means.
This is SO MUCH BETTER than Rufus Wainright's weak and insipid version on the commercial soundtrack. This guy understands the lyrics. He gets it. Thank you for posting this.
the song is about how he was hurt by women such as samuel in the bible had his hair cut off by a woman davids lust for bathsheba led to the death of his first born son so on and so forth he's relating his pain form a woman back to the bible
Out of all the versions of Hallelujah I've heard, this one is definitely my favorite. Cale communicates heartbreak better than just about anyone else (Sorry, LC.)
I like how this song is played by so many people. Guess there really are a lot of broken-hearted folks out there. I'm such an amateur...I have always thought songs with c, f ,g , a minor transition songs were bland and lame...I am totally wrong. And now, I am saddened to see that people are arguing about the lyrics of this song and the different religious beliefs; Can't this song just be respected as a solace with an allusion about Christianity? (Well, I think David is from Judaism but whatever). Is it not possible to just listen to a song without thinking of a way to criticize another and make more judgements? Is this what music is for? Anyways thank you all if you bothered to read some person's thoughts.
when I think that it was thanks to the film Shrek that I discovered this nugget, certainly it's not a song made for dancing but damn, how magnificent is this song. As for John Cale we really feel these emotions in these words
