# Looking for John Cale's "Hallelujah" From "Shrek" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 12, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-john-cales-hallelujah-from-shrek/174629 "2003-05-12T05:11:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-john-cales-hallelujah-from-shrek/174629/1 "2003-05-12T05:11:36Z")
I love this song . . . it’s beautiful. Unfortunately, the official soundtrack has a different artist singing the song, one whose voice isn’t quite as nice. I’ve looked everywhere, and can’t find it. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-john-cales-hallelujah-from-shrek/174629/2 "2003-05-12T05:19:32Z")
The version I downloaded was by Jeff Buckley. And it’s a fantastic song. I dont know if that’s the soundtrack version tho. ---
**Author:** ![Sassy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Sassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sassy)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-john-cales-hallelujah-from-shrek/174629/3 "2003-05-12T05:22:42Z")
It’s on his recording “Fragments of a Rainy Season” [Half.com](http://Half.com) has several available ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-john-cales-hallelujah-from-shrek/174629/4 "2003-05-12T05:28:05Z")
Rufus Wainwright sang the version from Shrek. But it’s a beautiful song by almost anyone. I think Leonard Cohen has a nice version too. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-john-cales-hallelujah-from-shrek/174629/5 "2003-05-12T05:58:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by manx \* > \*\*The version I downloaded was by Jeff Buckley. And it’s a fantastic song. I dont know if that’s the soundtrack version tho. \*\* It’s not. John Cale sings the movie version. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-john-cales-hallelujah-from-shrek/174629/6 "2003-05-12T06:12:51Z")
Okay, guys, I found someplace which has an ([http://www.radiationconsulting.com/igbl/index.cfm?FuseAction=Forum\_Replies&Post\_PK=5520](http://www.radiationconsulting.com/igbl/index.cfm?FuseAction=Forum_Replies&Post_PK=5520)) version of the song. Problem is, it’s jerky. It will play, then have a long pause, resume, and then pause again. Is there any way to save this song to my files in RealOne Player? (Is it legal to do so, first of all?) Is there any way to make the song play more smoothly? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-john-cales-hallelujah-from-shrek/174629/7 "2003-05-12T06:14:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Big Bad Voodoo Lou \* > \*\*I think Leonard Cohen has a nice version too. \*\* Leonard Cohen wrote the song, and did two versions of it. (The version in Shrek uses the lyrics from the second version. I have the first on CD, and that tripped me up a bit.) ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-john-cales-hallelujah-from-shrek/174629/8 "2003-05-12T06:15:22Z")
I just checked [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com), and it says Rufus Wainwright does the song on the soundtrack. Could it possibly be a mistake, or could Cale do the actual song in the movie but not the soundtrack? Or am I misunderstanding the question? [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005CF9Y/ref=m\_art\_li\_3/103-1465758-5223040?v=glance&s=music](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005CF9Y/ref=m_art_li_3/103-1465758-5223040?v=glance&s=music) ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-john-cales-hallelujah-from-shrek/174629/9 "2003-05-12T06:29:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Big Bad Voodoo Lou \* > \*\*I just checked [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com), and it says Rufus Wainwright does the song on the soundtrack. Could it possibly be a mistake, or could Cale do the actual song in the movie but not the soundtrack? Or am I misunderstanding the question? \*\* Yeah, Cale did the movie version, but Wainwright’s on the album. What I heard in my search is that Wainright had an upcomming album which was due to be released by the same company which did the movie. The accusations are that Wainwright’s version was used to plug his album, but I have no way of verifying that. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-john-cales-hallelujah-from-shrek/174629/10 "2003-05-12T07:13:19Z")
When I saw Shrek, I was fascinated by the song; I had never heard it before. I was surprised to discover it’s been covered by tons of big artists, including Bob Dylan and U2 (or maybe it was just Bono). As mentioned before, it’s by Leonard Cohen. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-john-cales-hallelujah-from-shrek/174629/11 "2003-05-12T13:23:54Z")
John Cale’s version of “Hallelujah” appears on the Leonard Cohen tribute CD [_I’m Your Fan_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002ISX). I can’t verify that this is the same performance as the _Shrek_ version or if he re-recorded it for the soundtrack–but I believe it is the same. The song also appears on Cale’s _Fragments of a Rainy Season_, but that’s a live version. ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-john-cales-hallelujah-from-shrek/174629/12 "2003-05-12T13:43:43Z")
Ah, now it all makes sense. When I saw the movie I thought “Hey, that’s John Cale!” Then I was totally mystified to see Rufus Wainright in the album credits. ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-john-cales-hallelujah-from-shrek/174629/13 "2003-05-12T13:58:05Z")
The version in the movie is the one from _Fragments of a Rainy Season_ but they hacked it up. For some reason the line “Now maybe there’s a god above” was unacceptable, so that verse is one line short in the movie. IMHO, the version on the “soundtrack” CD is nowhere near as good. Search the SDMB archives, there’s a discussion about which version of Hallelujah is best. To make a long story short: Consensus is that **Jeff Buckley’s** is best with **Cale’s** a close second and the **U2** version is horrible.