The broken Hallelujah

It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy, or the broken Hallelujah!
(Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen)

Turns out though, it does matter.

Since its release in the 1980s, Cohen's biblico-sexual epic Hallelujah has turned into a kind of secular hymn. Everyone and his dog has had a crack at it. A couple of months ago BBC2 ran a one-hour documentary on the song, featuring umpteen different versions by a host of singers, known and never-to-be known, with each trying to explain what they saw in the song. They all agreed it was the mysterious lyrics that drew them to it, though given that no two versions ever seem to include the same verses (Cohen wrote more than 80, of which about a dozen are still used), I find that a bit unconvincing. I think it's the simple tune and the chord progression, which Cohen helpfully (if bizarrely) spells out: "the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift".

It's been suggested that Hallelujah is the greatest song ever written. I suppose it might be, but you could equally argue that it's not even Cohen's best. (For your consideration: Alexandra Leaving, from Ten New Songs; Joan of Arc, from Songs of Love and Hate).

Alas, nothing is so perfect that Simon Cowell can't ruin it. He had all three X-factor finalists record Hallelujah, and the version by the winner, Alexandra Burke, has now been released, with every expectation that it will be the Christmas number 1. It's pretty bad. She only sings three verses; she adds a word in the first verse (it's only "and", but you don't mess with Leonard!); and she bellows out the last verse in an appalling Celine Dion/Whitney Houston stylee. With so many good versions of the song out there, it's sad to think that this racket will be many people's first exposure to it.

In fairness to Ms Burke, though, hers is not the worst version I've ever heard. Cohen's own rendition is not that great. Much worse, though, is one that I have on a Cohen tribute album ("Tower of song") in which Bono mumbles an almost inaudible version. Neither the words nor the tune comes out unscathed. Hallelujah survived that, so I suppose it can survive Ms Burke too.