"Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley! What's Up?
 

It's seems that this song "Hallalujah" by Jeff Buckley went from being a song I had never heard to being everywhere. I know that Leonard Cohen wrote it but what's the story with this song? Is it just me or is it everywhere these days?

Here in the UK, the X Factor was to blame for the songs meteoric rise. One of the contestants sang it apparently.

It has always been really popular, as far as I know. Wasn't it in some cartoon years ago? Like Shrek or something? And that wasn't the first time I'd heard of it, either.

It was but not the Jeff Buckley version.

Alexandra Burke sang it on X-Factor UK

It was John Cales version that was in Shrek. You could certainly argue that Cales version is the most significant or important version of the song, as it directly affected later live performances of the song from Leonard Cohen himself as well as the Jeff Buckley version.

The Jeff Buckley version was not released as a single at the time and therefore didnt chart, but it was used in the media alot and is probably the best known version for that reason. It was never really a commercially successful song until more recent years. Alexandra Burke, who won the X Factor had a Christmas #1 with it in the UK in 2007. The release of the single prompted internet campaigns or protests to buy the Buckley version which resulted in a posthumous #2 slot in the charts on the same week, and Leonard Cohens version also charted around thirty-something.

It was always a widely covered song. There are documented or recorded versions from KD Lang, Bob Dylan, Bon Jovi, Rufus Wainwright and Willie Nelson. It was just never a commercial success until around six years ago.

Whose song is it originally?

If "Yellow Submarine" is in a movie and Beyonce sings it, it's still a Beatles song.

Leonard Cohen, originally on the 1984 album Various Positions, an album that originally had a troubled history being the first not to be released in The US on Columbia (It was originally on the Indie label Passport). One of the first known covers was by John Cale (ex-Velvet Underground), but in my opinion it was Jeff Buckley who brought it to a wider audience.