Jeff buckley hallelujah when was it released

Cale liked the tune, and decided to make his own version of Hallelujah with some new lyrics. Cale's version of the song, which sounds more like the popular version we know today, appears on a Leonard Cohen tribute album called I'm Your Fan. Of the small number of audiophiles who purchased I'm Your Fan , one of them was a woman who lived in Brooklyn.

Why's that important to know? Because a young singer named Jeff Buckley used to house-sit at that woman's apartment. Buckley stayed at the apartment and checked out the I'm Your Fan album, which includes Cale's cover of Hallelujah.

Buckley went on to craft his own version of the song , and then performed it at a bar in the East Village. At the bar, an executive from Columbia Records happened to be in the audience, heard the song, signed the singer, and had Buckley record his version of Hallelujah for a studio album. And when we started to get the voicings and the chords and the melody, then it became blessed. Jake Shimabukuro is a young, Hawaiian-born ukulele virtuoso.

There are these very simple lines that are constantly happening. To go on that journey, the whole thing taken as an experience, is wonderful. Though the song potentially lent itself to a grand, anthemic treatment, and a note on the actual score indicates that the musicians were to perform the song in a gospel style, the producer wanted to hold it back.

We decided to do this modified choir that was not gospel, not children; it was just sort of a people choir. We brought everyone in — the band came and sang, my ex-wife came and sang, I sang on it. In a way we were trying to get it to be a community choir sound, very humble.

It got its strength from its sincerity and its focus. We just wanted it to be sort of everyman. I remember Leonard kept asking me to put more and more reverb on his voice. We wanted the song to keep growing bigger and bigger each chorus, but there are limitations of dynamic range on a recording, so the mix was very challenging.

Blessed is the name. They finished recording the song, and the rest of the Various Positions album. This is a disaster. Lissauer suggests that perhaps the executives at Columbia a division of CBS; soon to become part of the Sony Corporation were expecting something more pop-oriented, based on the early reports from the sessions. Ungar believes that the rejection of the album was less strategic than that. In September , Leonard Cohen would turn fifty. Each of his last three albums — covering a time span that reached back a full decade — had sold less than its predecessor, even in the scattered countries around the world where he did have a following.

He had never placed an album in the U. Top Ten. Meanwhile, as Cohen was in the studio recording Various Positions, the summer of was perhaps the biggestseason in the history of the record business. There could be no arguing that record sales had become very big business, and were getting bigger by the day.

Stakes were high. Buckley was close with his stepfather, Ron Moorhead, and he gave Buckley his first Led Zeppelin album, which would prove to be highly influential to the future musician. After performing in a handful of cover bands throughout high school, Buckley attended the Los Angeles Musicians Institute after his high school graduation. Over the next several years, he played various gigs and wrote songs, looking for direction.

It wasn't long, though, before he left the group to embark upon a solo career. In early , Buckley went out on his first solo tour of small venues in support of the live album, and in the summer of , his first studio album, Grace , was released on August 23, the same day he and his band began their European tour in Dublin, Ireland. Featuring original songs such as "Last Goodbye," "Mojo Pin" and a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," Grace was released to a modest reception, but found some kindred spirits in the critical realm.

Buckley and his band went on tour to promote the album for almost three years, during which time the album and Buckley saw popular and critical attention grow. In the years since its release, in fact, Grace has been lauded again and again, seemingly picking up momentum with each passing year.

The album was ranked No. An especially notable accolade was provided by David Bowie , who named Grace the sole album he would want if stranded on a desert island. By the summer of , Buckley had begun recording demos for his second album, which he intended to call My Sweetheart the Drunk. On May 29, , the night his band was arriving from New York to record the final studio tracks, Buckley and a friend took a detour while en route to the recording space.

Making a stop at the Wolf River channel of the Mississippi River, a fully clothed Buckley waded into the water and began swimming. The wake of a passing boat sucked Buckley under, and he drowned. His body was recovered six days later, after it was seen by a riverboat passenger.