Kate Voegele, perhaps best known for her recurring role on One Tree Hill, has pulled out a daring cover of Jason Derulo’s “Whatcha Say” on her recent tour (note: not even Derulo seems willing to try it without that Imogen Heap sample piping in behind him). But OTH fans know she’s fairly fearless when it comes to taking on prominent songs: she tried her hand at Leonard Cohen’s iconic “Hallelujah” on the show last year, and just released a new version with a proper video. She has a nice take on it. Need proof?

Far too many singers have mangled this song, which was immortalized by the late Jeff Buckley and surged to the top of the British charts a year ago after it was covered by The X Factor winner Alexandra Burke. (Even Cohen is a little tired of the song’s overuse in TV and movies.) But we thought Kate acquitted herself quite well, balancing her powerful vocals with the soft touch the song requires. And heck, we thought it was a nice note to strike as we wish everyone a merry merry. And to all, a good night.

If you were Leonard Cohen, and you kept hearing how no one considers your version of “Hallelujah” to be the best one—and, trust me, most people do not—you might be tempted, on your new tour, to change the song’s arrangement a bit. Make it a little more like that dead pretty boy, with chiming guitar, or more like the viola guy from that Warhol band, a little peppier and piano-driven. But did he?

Well, sort of. Cohen doesn’t borrow anything instrumentally, as the arrangement is basically the same organ-heavy vibe as heard on Cohen Live. That album’s “Hallelujah,” taken from a mid-’80s tour, was notably different from the studio version, as it began with three new verses before finishing with the fourth verse of the original. Cale would combine the two versions to produce the five-verse arrangement that Buckley used, and which most people are familiar with.

At first, it seems like Cohen is going to capitulate and embrace the sad-sack miserabilism that Buckley’s revision embodied. The first four verses are, indeed, the same as in Cale’s arrangement, but the closing verse is different. Where Cale closed with a harrowing verse with the climactic line “It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah,” Cohen instead interjects the verse he used to finish off both of his previous versions. That verse concludes with:

And even though
It all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

In Cale’s version, the hope of ecstasy promised by the sensual fourth verse (“remember when I moved in you”) is ultimately crushed by the hopelessness present in most of the other verses. But here, that verse is followed with the above affirmation of triumph. When Cohen used this verse to close his previous live version, it came after utter dejection, and so represented a kind of hope in the face of hopelessness. Now it finds itself transformed into a statement about love. This arrangement says that love is imperfect, but nevertheless works, somehow, and can achieve a kind of transcendent, irrational bliss if you give it time. Where Cohen’s studio version was youthful Biblical cleverness and his ’80s live version was midlife despair, in his old age—and with that wonderful voice—he instead affirms love, in spite of it all.

I’m no hardcore Cohen fan, so I don’t know how long he’s been using this version. But it for sure tops that worn-out old stub of a banality that is the Buckley version. As, regrettably, Watchmen realized. Ah well, you can’t win ‘em all.

Leonard Cohen, ‘Hallelujah’ — Video Premiere [Spinner]

Sexy siren and star of Rob Reiner’s 1994 classic North Scarlett Johansson has covered a Jeff Buckley song. And it sucks. And you can hear it inside! And if that’s not what gets people to click inside blog threads then we’ve been going at this Internet thing all wrong! What if we told you we had nude photos of her too?

…Well, we don’t. What’s up Google perverts!

Anyway, she’s butchering ol’ Buckley’s “Last Goodbye” for He’s Just Not That Into You, a movie with a title that is so pukeworthy that I’m not even going to Wikipedia to find out what it’s about. Now, it would be too easy to call her tone-deaf—especially since her tunelessness actually worked on her album of Tom Waits covers. Seriously, everyone who says this girl can’t sing needs to take a long hard look at their Nico albums. Sing away, ScarJo! Lost in a swirl of Sitek syrup (ew?), she was a dreamgaze chanteuse and I loved, loved, loved her for it. Plus, who can fuck up a Tom Waits song?

But with no Sitek, no Waits songs, and maybe about 1/16 of Buckley’s vocal range, ScarJo just sounds like she’s at an open mic night. You know that part in “Last Goodbye” where Jeff Buckley’s voice gets higher and higher and he reaches those magical peaks that slouchy messenger bag kids sometimes trick themselves into thinking is a special moment for mixtapes, but is secretly just major label proto-Josh Groban with a bad haircut? Yeah, she just skips that part. When they pass around the hat, I’m totally not putting in any money!

Scarlett Johansson Covers Jeff Buckley [Stereogum]

In news that only the hardest-hearted among us (ahem, Superineficaz) will be grumpy about, Canadian songwriter and former Buddhist monk Leonard Cohen will play his first United States show in 15 years at New York’s Beacon Theater on Feb. 19. That place has a capacity of 2,800, and I’m making the ballsiest prediction of my life here: it’s gonna be a sellout. Tickets go on sale this Friday. But there’s a dark side to all of this.

Cohen didn’t just get the touring bug and decide to hit the road again. Nope. He was bilked out of $5 million by former lover and manager Kelley Lynch, who sounds like the kind of succubus that might turn up in a Leonard Cohen song. He won a $9.5 million settlement against her, and, surprise!, he’s had trouble collecting on that debt.

In college, we used to while away the hours making up fake Leonard Cohen stories based on the awesome stories he wrote in the liner notes of his Best Of…: “I am in the wrong. I am with the wrong woman.”

“It was a muggy Wednesday, as Wednesdays usually are. She sat next to me in a Sudanese flophouse, scraping the mud, blonde hair, and blood from her boots. Mascara ran a river down her face. Last night was a blur, but Tuesday nights usually are.”

It’s fun and easy! My friend, gorjus, of PrettyFakes.com, made a comic strip called “Ask Leonard Cohen” that still makes me laugh, years later.



Leonard Cohen to play first U.S. show in 15 years [Reuters]

Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts:

When the producers of American Idol announced at the start of this season that, for the first time, they would be selling contestants’ performances on iTunes, but that iTunes had agreed not to report those sales publicly or to Billboard, we chart geeks grumbled. How would we know how big an impact the show had on consumers’ instant whims?

We needn’t have worried–we’ve still got plenty of old songs, the ones the contestants sing, to keep an eye on. Long story short–the show is still huge, and it affects music sales like nothing since Ed Sullivan. Idol contestant Jason Castro: the estates of Cohen and Buckley thank you.

The top Digital Song in the country, according to Billboard and SoundScan, is Jeff Buckley’s 1994 cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Taken from his album Grace, Buckley’s angelic cover blasted through 178,000 downloads last week.

Of course, as we’ve discussed in this space before, sales of old songs are not eligible for the Billboard Hot 100 unless they’re being “actively promoted” to radio. That excludes Buckley from the big chart, and that’s a real shame. He never appeared on the Hot 100, not even its lower rungs, during his tragically short career; on the Modern Rock chart, one lone song, “Last Goodbye,” also from Grace, crept up to No. 19 in 1995.

We’ll never know how high “Hallelujah”–which has never appeared on the Hot 100 by any artist, despite its many covers–might have charted had it not been for the Billboard age-based eligibility rule. It’s doubtful Buckley would have seriously threatened Usher for No. 1; the latter’s “Love in This Club” has not just sales but fast-growing airplay propelling it. But with sales like “Hallelujah’s,” it’s safe to guess the song would have pulled something like Yael Naïm’s TV-fueled, airplay-lacking “New Song” last month and at least made the Top 10.

Ever since the iTunes Music Store came online in 2003, one year after Idol debuted in the United States, we’ve seen dozens of old songs covered by the finalists make the upper reaches of Apple’s best-sellers list in the days immediately following their performances. What makes “Hallelujah” special is how long it’s hanging on–as recently as two days ago, iTunes was reporting Buckley’s tune as its top seller, and as of today it’s still in Apple’s top five.

It appears that the dreadlocked Castro has actually turned on a large portion of America–the portion not yet acquainted with Buckley–to “Hallelujah,” and it’s becoming a word-of-mouth hit. The day I hear Buckley’s angelic voice coming out of the adult-schlock radio station blaring at my local drugstore–that’s one less moment I have to hear Celine Dion!–I think I’m going to feel grateful to Jason Castro, too.

Less Love in Usher’s Old Club: You might notice that “Love in This Club,” already tops on the all-genre Hot 100, is only just reaching the R&B/Hip-Hop Top 10 this week. You can either view that as evidence of Usher cooling off with his base, or take it as a sign of what makes the R&B chart different from the pop chart: in a word, sales, or the lack thereof. (Even as Usher’s airplay continues to explode, his chart-topping performance on the Hot 100 is still due overwhelmingly to digital sales.)

The R&B/Hip-Hop chart is stuck in a pre-iTunes time warp, with no digital sales component and total dominance by airplay; physical singles sales are included, but you can imagine how miniscule a factor they are in 2008. Basically, the R&B chart looks and behaves the way the Hot 100 did from 1998 through 2004, when it was essentially an airplay chart, before the Big Bang moment in 2005 when iTunes sales were incorporated.

The sticky problem is, Billboard hasn’t yet figured out how to bring digital sales into the R&B/Hip-Hop chart without hurting its brand. The R&B charts are meant to reflect, in large part, what black-owned or -catering stores sell to their customer base. Adding digital sales would likely marginalize this fragile group of retailers. Plus, there’s the small matter of how to identify a “core” (read: probably black, preferably living someplace other than Iowa) R&B song buyer on the Internet–it’s not as simple as narrowing iTunes’ sales to only those songs that get played on R&B or hip-hop stations.

No one wants to hurt the core economy that makes this chart viable and vibrant. Still, it’s willful denial to believe that, at this late date, thousands of historically R&B-leaning consumers aren’t buying the bulk of their songs online.

Billboard is aware of the issue, obviously. Buried in the magazine a couple of times since last year, the editors have made reference to figuring out the black-digital-sales conundrum, and they have made noises about adding a digital-sales component. So stay tuned.

(Before you ask: So long as the country chart remains airplay-only, as it has for decades, this isn’t an issue with that chart or that demographic.)

Here’s a rundown of the rest of this week’s charts:

• Entering the Top 10 this week, each for the first time, are Ray J and Lupe Fiasco. And each has an assist: Ray J from Yung Berg, whose rap on “Sexy Can I” follows up his own hit “Sexy Lady” (sense a theme?) from late last summer; and Lupe Fiasco from no-really-I’m-not-the-dude-from-Coldplay crooner Matthew Santos, who provides the chewy melodic hook on “Superstar.” Finally leaving the Top 10 after five months: Alicia Keys’s deathless No. 1 smash “No One.”

• Over the years, the Brits have managed to sell back to us their versions of pop-star forms we invented: rock combos, soul singers, even the occasional rapper. Add “Whitney/Mariah-style diva” to the list: the Simon Cowell-produced belter Leona Lewis is now officially a U.S. Top 40 act. Lewis leaps 20 notches to No. 21 with her diva ballad “Bleeding Love.” After winning the U.K.-based competition The X Factor last fall, Lewis has already set records in Old Blighty and across Europe, recently knocking off Arctic Monkeys’ two-year-old U.K. record for the biggest week of album sales by a debut act. Anyway, fellow melisma haters, brace yourselves: the debut single’s performance means her album will probably be a smash when they launch it here in a few weeks.

• He doesn’t look so scary anymore–Flo Rida’s “Elevator” is down six slots to No. 22 this week. As Nelson Muntz would say: HA-ha!

Top 10s
Last week’s position and total weeks charted in parentheses:

Hot 100
1. Usher Featuring Young Jeezy, “Love In This Club” (LW No. 1, 4 weeks)
2. Chris Brown, “With You” (LW No. 3, 15 weeks)
3. Flo Rida feat. T-Pain, “Low” (LW No. 2, 20 weeks)
4. Sara Bareilles, “Love Song” (LW No. 5, 19 weeks)
5. Rihanna, “Don’t Stop the Music” (LW No. 4, 16 weeks)
6. Jordin Sparks with Chris Brown, “No Air” (LW No. 6, 10 weeks)
7. Ray J & Yung Berg, “Sexy Can I” (LW No. 13, 6 weeks)
8. Timbaland feat. OneRepublic, “Apologize” (LW No. 7, 32 weeks)
9. Webbie, Lil’ Phat & Lil’ Boosie, “Independent” (LW No. 9, 16 weeks)
10. Lupe Fiasco feat. Matthew Santos, “Superstar” (LW No. 11, 13 weeks)

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
1. Keyshia Cole, “I Remember” (LW No. 1, 19 weeks)
2. Alicia Keys, “Like You’ll Never See Me Again” (LW No. 2, 20 weeks)
3. The-Dream, “Falsetto” (LW No. 4, 14 weeks)
4. J. Holiday, “Suffocate” (LW No. 3, 23 weeks)
5. Mary J. Blige, “Just Fine” (LW No. 5, 24 weeks)
6. Chris Brown, “With You” (LW No. 6, 15 weeks)
7. Mario, “Crying Out for Me” (LW No. 7, 28 weeks)
8. Shawty Lo, “Dey Know” (LW No. 8, 23 weeks)
9. Usher Featuring Young Jeezy, “Love In This Club” (LW No. 11, 5 weeks)
10. Webbie, Lil’ Phat & Lil’ Boosie, “Independent” (LW No. 9, 21 weeks)

Hot Country Songs
1. Carrie Underwood, “All-American Girl” (LW No. 1, 15 weeks)
2. Alan Jackson, “Small Town Southern Man” (LW No. 3, 18 weeks)
3. Kenny Chesney with George Strait, “Shiftwork” (LW No. 4, 21 weeks)
4. Rodney Atkins, “Cleaning This Gun (Come on in Boy)” (LW No. 2, 25 weeks)
5. Trace Adkins, “You’re Gonna Miss This” (LW No. 6, 14 weeks)
6. Chuck Wicks, “Stealing Cinderella” (LW No. 5, 29 weeks)
7. Chris Cagle, “What Kinda Gone” (LW No. 9, 34 weeks)
8. George Strait, “I Saw God Today” (LW No. 8, 5 weeks)
9. Jason Aldean, “Laughed Until We Cried” (LW No. 10, 31 weeks)
10. James Otto, “Just Got Started Lovin’ You” (LW No. 12, 21 weeks)

Hot Modern Rock Tracks
1. Foo Fighters, “Long Road to Ruin” (LW No. 1, 20 weeks)
2. Linkin Park, “Shadow of the Day” (LW No. 2, 23 weeks)
3. Puddle of Mudd, “Psycho” (LW No. 5, 19 weeks)
4. Seether, “Fake It” (LW No. 3, 28 weeks)
5. Paramore, “crushcrushcrush” (LW No. 4, 17 weeks)
6. Foo Fighters, “The Pretender” (LW No. 6, 32 weeks)
7. Jack Johnson, “If I Had Eyes” (LW No. 9, 14 weeks)
8. Rise Against, “The Good Left Undone” (LW No. 7, 37 weeks)
9. The Bravery, “Believe” (LW No. 11, 23 weeks)
10. Avenged Sevenfold, “Almost Easy” (LW No. 8, 23 weeks)

As of this moment, Jeff Buckley’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”–which Jason Castro performed last night to much fanfare and Googling–is No. 5 on the iTunes Music Store’s Top Songs chart and Nos. 2 and 7 on the Amazon MP3 store’s singles chart; Cohen’s version is also at No. 98 on Amazon. (If the iTunes Store actually charted the digital tracks they’re selling from each contestant, instead of hiding behind a cloak of Fox-sanctioned secrecy, I have no doubt that Castro would be the runaway No. 1 the minute that the contestant’s performances went on sale Friday.) Am I a bad person for being kinda happy that Phil Collins’ “Another Day In Paradise,” which David Archuleta pounded his way through, hasn’t seen a similar bump? [Amazon / iTunes]

American Idol hopeful Jason Castro performed his take on the Jeff Buckley interpretation of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” that won huzzahs from the judges tonight, thus continuing the long, strange journey of Cohen’s song from hyperserious-to-an-almost-satirical-point track to something that everyone, even Simon Cowell, can be moved by. Frequent Idolator guestblogger Mike Barthel wrote a paper on the trajectory of the song–complete with graph!–for last year’s EMP Pop Music Conference, and it’s pretty key reading for anyone who wants to know more about this track that, judging by our Google hits over the past 30 minutes, has been “hidden in plain sight” since its first release some 20-or-so years ago. [clapclap.org]