Late star Jeff Buckley scored his biggest ever hit last night when Hallelujah shot to number tow in the UK chart.
It finished just behind the version of the same song by X Factor winner Alexandra Burke, It is the first time that two versions of the same song have taken the top two positions in the chart for 51 years.
The last time such a feat occurred was in 1957 when Tommy Steele and Guy Mitchell held the top two positions with Singin' The Blues when the charts were in their infancy.
Buckley's 1994 version of Hallelujah, from his only complete album Grace, found a new lease of life thanks to an online campaignin response to the track being given to the X Factor victor. Buckley, who drowned in 1997, was not the only star whose archive version of the track made the chart - Leonard Cohen, the song's author, was at number 36 with his original performance.
Burke's track sold 576,000 copies in a week making it the fastest selling single by a female solo artist, beating another X Factor winner Leona Lewis's A Moment Like This. Buckley sold 81,000 copies of Hallelujah simply on download.
12:44 AM | 22/12/2008
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shame it didn't go to number one, but it's also a niceity because Buckley was never about commercial gain. Jeff was all sound, all Grace
Posted by Topper Shull at 7:26 PM | 22/12/2008 | Report Abuse
Jeff Buckley's version is OK, but two other versions are far superior. Namely, Rufus Wainright, who does a brilliant version and also Bono does a very different version on Tower of Song, the songs of Leonard Cohen.
It's also a pity that the great man himself-Leonard Cohen cannot cash in on this new interest in his song as he sold all his songs to Sony years ago.
Posted by Angie at 1:21 PM | 23/12/2008 | Report Abuse
Jeff Buckley's version is OK, but two other versions are far superior. Namely, Rufus Wainright, who does a brilliant version and also Bono does a very different version on Tower of Song, the songs of Leonard Cohen.
It's also a pity that the great man himself-Leonard Cohen cannot cash in on this new interest in his song as he sold all his songs to Sony years ago.
Posted by Angie at 1:21 PM | 23/12/2008 | Report Abuse
Jeff Buckley's version is OK, but two other versions are far superior. Namely, Rufus Wainright, who does a brilliant version and also Bono does a very different version on Tower of Song, the songs of Leonard Cohen.
It's also a pity that the great man himself-Leonard Cohen cannot cash in on this new interest in his song as he sold all his songs to Sony years ago.
Posted by Angie at 1:22 PM | 23/12/2008 | Report Abuse
Personally I think Rufus Wainright did the best version, but the credit should be focused on Leonard Cohen and not Jeff Buckley. I feel people should be free to interpret songs however they wish, but only if they understand the meaning of the song. In an interview, Alexandra admitted she did not know what the song was even about. She is a very very good singer, but I feel that a song sung without any feeling or personal understanding is meaningless.
Posted by Angie at 1:12 AM | 25/12/2008 | Report Abuse
No No you're wrong, Leonard Cohen will still make and continue to make a huge fortune from Hallelujah, only the publishers share was sold to Sony, he kept the writer's share which is a greater % of the deal.
In any case the deal was done without his concent.....Both versions deserve to be On. 1 & 2 in the UK charts, though Jeff's version is quite airy.......William Kofi - Manager/Music Consultant
Posted by William Kofi at 3:11 PM | 25/12/2008 | Report Abuse
I love Jeff Buckley's version - it is entirely unique - eerie and ethereal
I also love Rufus Wainwright's later version of the same song?- More piano based in it's arrangement it can also set the spine tingling (as does his cover of the sublimally beautiful Across the Universe)
Jeff Buckley's version is still timeless! Quite agreed thought that it yet again proves how much of a master Leonard Cohen is - his version is so simplistic, raw and bare but like so many of his songs is open to so many different interpretations.
Posted by Steve M at 11:45 PM | 25/12/2008 | Report Abuse
I think that Alexandra Burkes version is by far the superior. Her voice really suit this song and I am glad she has done so well with it!
Posted by lisa at 2:07 PM | 05/01/2009 | Report Abuse
great song, great version sung by Jeff Buckley
Posted by tara zeller at 12:47 AM | 07/01/2009 | Report Abuse
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