Hallelujah - Lenard Cohen / Jeff Buckley / Timberlake & Morris (cover-live by Bill Sharkey)

Hallelujah (Lenard Cohen, 1984; Jeff Buckley, 1994; Justin Timberlake & Matt Morris, 2010; Pentatonix, 2016). Live cover performance by Bill Sharkey, Home Studio, Hawaii Kai, HI. 2021-04-12. "Keeping the Oldies Alive."

"Hallelujah" was written and recorded by Lenard Cohen on his LP Various Positions, which was released in 1984 (S. Marshall, godtube.com, Jul 7, 2017). The song did not excite the audiences until it was performed at concerts and recorded by Jeff Buckley in 1994, and even more so after Rufus Wainwright's version found its way into the Shrek film and soundtrack (2001). Although Cohen's, Buckley's, and Wainwright's versions never made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart when they originally released them (G. Trust, billboard.com, 2016) and many other versions were recorded, only a handful of versions eventually made it onto the chart with Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris' version having the most success hitting the #13 position in 2010 (Whitburn, 2013), while Pentatonix's 2016 version moved to #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (Wikipedia, 2021). However, after Lenard Cohen's death in 2016, his original version debuted at #59 on the Billboard chart (G. Trust, billboard.com, 2016). Here's an interesting side note, according to songfests.com (2021), over a period of 5 years, Cohen wrote over 80 verses to the song before selecting the recorded verses.

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