The next song on my writing play list is Hallelujah written by Leonard Cohen and seemingly covered by almost everyone. It’s never been a raging commercial success, but it is a moving, poetic and interesting song. The lyrics start out religious with lines talking about king David and Bathsheba and Samson and Delilah. Then it moves into a section about failed romance. All throughout the constant refrain of Hallelujah is more of a lament than a celebration. The word hallelujah is transformed from a statement of joy to more of a symbol of our failings as Cohen uses the phrased, “… a broken Hallelujah,” to indicate times when things haven’t gone as expected.
If you’re into poetry, likely you’ve heard of Leonard Cohen. He’s a poet, writer and singer-songwriter. Hallelujah, is his most famous song, but he struggled with it for a long time. While the central themes seem solid, in fact Cohen struggled with this song and wrote hundreds of different lines and many different versions of the song have been recorded. The song first released on the 1984 album Various Positions. It didn’t do well. It wasn’t until 1991 when John Cale released a version of the song the song that it started to get some recognition.
Cohen performed the song on tour, often as the last song of the show. Hallelujah got a big boost when it was featured in the movie Shrek in 2001 where it was used as a lament when Shrek’s love interest is taking off to marry the king. Toward the end of Cohen’s life the song was being covered more and heard by more people.
I didn’t encounter the song until 2016 when the a cappella group Pentatonix released their cover of the song. It’s amazing and just best if you listen to it since it’s so hard to describe:
I don’t exactly recall how I found it, but I think a friend posted it on FaceBook and later I found it on YouTube. I’ve listened to a number of different covers of the song, including a few by Cohen himself, but it’s always been the Pentatonix version I like the best and what I put on my writing play list.
Like all the songs on my play list, Hallelujah, transports my mind to deeper thought and reflection. The lyrics are moving and enigmatic. Cohen reduces the story of David and Bathsheba to a few lines saying, “You saw her bathing on the roof / Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew ya.” I’ve heard sermons going on for 20, 30 minutes on this story, but Cohen is able to reduce the whole event to just a couple of lines of poetry. The density of his poetry gets me thinking every time I listen to this one.
Then there is Pentatonix’s musicianship and extraordinary vocal skills. They mix their parts so you have not only good harmony, but also the underlying bass lines and percussion. By the time you’ve finished listening to their cover, you’ve forgotten that the whole production was just vocal. Also the music video they have on YouTube just adds to the overall feeling and emotion that Hallelujah generates.
Andrew's View of the Week 
I love this song and Pentatonix. This is one song that gives me goosebumps no matter how many times I hear it. Thanks for sharing.
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Pentatonix is great, I just love their music.
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Nice exposition on this powerful, complicated song, Andrew.
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Thank you – I do like this song.
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I love the Pentatonix! I didn’t realize they’d covered Hallelujah, though. Thank you so much for sharing this! 🙂
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They cover a lot of songs and I’m happy they covered this one.
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It’s hard to beat a Pentatonix version of any song. I hadn’t seen this video and it only adds to the vocals. Their Christmas season music is wonderful too. Carrie Underwood and John Legend did a nice spin on “Hallelujah” for her Christmas album a few years back. I’ll be curious to see if commenters suggest any other versions.
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There are a lot of covers for this one. I thought of listing them, but wow, it’s a long list. I haven’t heard the Underwood/Legend version. Now I’ll have to go find it.
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That song always makes me want to cry and Pentatonix’s version is the best. But I love any song by Pentatonix since I first saw them on some a cappella singing show years ago.
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I just love listening to this version. Someday I hope to be able to hear them live.
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Me too!!
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I can’t listen to this song without getting chills. What a wonderful treat to have this in my email box this morning. Five minutes of bliss. This isn’t my favorite rendition but it is absolutely gorgeous.
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I just love listening to this song.
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I also think that rendition is probably my favorite. Just beautiful. Nice way to start the week. Thankk you!
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I listen to this song most times I sit down to write.
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I’d never listened to the words before. Thank you! (We enjoyed attending a Pentatonix concert here in Des Moines many moons ago.)
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Pentatonix is great, someday I hope they’ll have a show close enough that I can go hear them live.
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Leonard Cohen was an extremely talented man, who would have been perhaps just as famous a songwriter, if he had only written “A Perfect Day”.
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True. He’s also an interesting man to research.
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I didn’t know who Cohen was back when my daughter-in-law was excited about his concert here at Red Rocks. So she mentioned the song and I made the connection. Love the song. Cry whenever I hear it. Love Pentatonix. So I’m a bit of a mess at the moment.
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There is so much to like about this song and it is very moving. Once I discovered it – well it’s on most of my play lists.
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But, that said, his is still my favorite rendition. And, one of my favorite songs.
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There are a lot of great covers and certainly his is very good. Some of the articles I read said that Cohen would often change the lyrics for his performances – the song wasn’t a static thing for him and changed often. I kind of like that.
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Yes I read the same thing. He just kept adding on verses..His song ended when he di.
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Like we say in the poetry world, “Poems are never finished, just abandoned.”
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I’ve never heard that before but certainly agree, especially as it comes to editing!
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