Rate-O-Rama: Hallelujah

Scroll down to see the new Rate-O-Rama Raffle Winner for October 2023.

If you wish to receive a notice when the next Rate-O-Rama post is published please mention that you would like a notification in the comments section.

Rate-O-Rama : Songmania is a reader participation game.

Every Sunday I will publish a Rate-O-Rama article which will feature three versions of a popular song.

The object is to listen to each of the music videos provided within the post.

After listening to each video you can rate each song in the comments section below.

(You must be a member to comment. If you are not a member you can join Vocal Media for FREE. You don’t ever have to pay for membership unless you choose to upgrade your membership)

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The rating method is easy. Simply give each song a rating of 1 to 100.

(The more you like the song the higher the rating).

If possible, please provide a brief comment explaining the reasoning behind your ratings for each song.

After a week (Saturday evening) I will tally the ratings and in the next Rate-O-Rama post I will announce the winner from the previous post.

The winners will be determined on a scale of averages.

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The Raffle!!!

I am taking the Rate-O-Rama series to the next level. At the end of each month I will do a raffle in which the winner will win a $5.00 tip.

To enter all you have to do is participate in playing the Rate-O-Rama game. Since R-O-R is updated every Sunday night in order to qualify you must play the game during it's initial seven day period with Sunday evening being the cutoff period.

For each game you play you will receive a ticket for the raffle. Therefore if you play all four games in the month you will have four chances to win.

The winner will not only win the $5 prize but I will feature your Vocal Profile on Vocal + Assist on both Facebook and Discord and you will be featured in the first R-O-R game of the month after your win.

The October 2023 Rate-O-Rama Raffle Winner:

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Last week we featured the Classic Rock classic: "People Are Strange" as recorded by The Doors (1967), Echo & The Bunnymen (1987), and Pentatonix (2020).

The following are the average ratings for each song as resulted from the votes:

🥇 The Doors: 97.1

🥈 The Dead South: 80.4

🥉 Echo & The Bunnymen: 79.8

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The Twelfth Edition of Rate-O-Rama features three renditions of the Spiritual Folk classic: "Hallelujah."

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Leonard Cohen (1984)

The Leonard Cohen penned song has become a staple on the landscape of spiritual and folk music. It has been covered by more than 300 musicians around the world. Cohen wrote up to 180 drafts of the song over a five year span before finally recording it. Initially Cohen's rendition received little attention. After his 2016 death his original recording charted around the world. Including France #1, Switzerland #2, Spain #3, UK #36, US #59, and several other countries.

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Jeff Buckley (1994)

Like his father, folk music legend Tim Buckley, Jeff Buckley died at a young age. Jeff drowned at the age of 30 while swimming in the Mississippi River. Tim died at age 28 from a drug overdose.

Jeff was 27 when Grace, the only album to be released during his lifetime, was released. The album suffered from poor sales but gradually caught on and within 15 years experienced platinum and multi-platinum sales throughout the world.

Like its parent album, Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah" was initially largely ignored. As time progressed the song received its due recognition. In 2003 the song was ranked #259 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. The song was belatedly released as a single in 2007 and charted around the world reaching #1 in the US and France and #2 in Canada and the UK as well as Top 10 positions in many other countries. On April 2, 2013, it was announced that Buckley's version of the song would be inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.

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Alexandra Burke (2008)

The British singer, songwriter, and actress released her cover of "Hallelujah" in December 2008 and shortly after the song appeared on her 2009 debut album Overcome. Her rendition charted at #1 in Ireland, Scotland, and the UK and charted outside of the Top 20 in five other countries. Burke's recording has sold 1.3 million copies as of August 2016, making it the biggest-selling X Factor winner's single to date.

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My Thoughts

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Leonard Cohen: Mr. Cohen wrote one of the most beautiful soulful songs of all-time and for that he must be recognized. However, I feel his vocal performance of the song is at times lacking the greater soul the song requires to convey its message effectively. I give Leonard Cohen 92 points.

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Jeff Buckley: Jeff Buckley's rendition stirs my soul. The intimacy in his voice and stripped down musical arrangements brings tears to my soul. I feel his voice in all the deep inner parts of my emotions.

I will go so far as to say that if Jeff Buckley would have lived long enough to get five or more albums released he would have been regarded as one of the all-time greatest vocalists sitting alongside those such as Freddie Mercury, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, George Michael, and Nat King Cole. I give Jeff Buckley's rendition 100

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Alexandra Burke: Alexandra's vocal performance is spectacular. She has the power and the range to effectively carry the song. But then around 2:09 the simple arrangement becomes a full blown orchestration and the song goes from intimate to bombastic as does her vocal and for me the soulfulness of the song gets lost for about 45 seconds. I give Burke's rendition 92 points.

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I will be back next week with the results of this Rate-O-Rama Edition.

Last Week's Rate-O-Rama:

With Love, RHC ❤️