Long live Leonard - his 10 years delayed recognition

A magic song from our Leo, a Canadian icon. Cohen first rose to minor prominence in the late Fifties as a Canadian poet and novelist (he has produced 12 volumes of poetry and prose), turning to songwriting only in his thirties in an attempt to generate some income.

'I can't finish this song': Leonard Cohen (audio)
Listen to the interview where he explains the toil of writing the song.

Listen and take notes on these facts:
On 21 December 2008, cover versions song  got ....
1- which numbers on the UK Charts?  ......,   ........ 
2-  while Cohen's version reached ....... position.

He says:
I was reading a ................. of a movie called 'Watchmen' that  ............ it, 

and the reviewer said '................... have a moratorium

 on 'Hallelujah' in ......... and ...........................?'

Hors d'ouvre: A couple of reviews on the song

“Cohen spent years struggling with his song ‘Hallelujah.’ … He wrote perhaps as many as 80 verses before paring the song down.” — Janet Maslin, taken from a ‘New York Times’ review.

It's just a pop song... Who said they ever had to make sense? To quote someone i can't remember now...
" You see what you want to see...and you hear what you want to hear" Nuff said!

Main course: 

It is all there in one song in particular, an epic, gospel-tinged ballad of desire and rejection, love and sex, God and man, failure and transcendence, the inevitability of death and triumph of the spirit against the greatest odds. (NYTimes) 

“Hallelujah” was written by Leonard Cohen (Canadian singer-songwriter). The song was released on Leonard’s 1984 album ‘Various Positions’,

his label, CBS Records, refused to release “Various Positions,” not realizing that “Hallelujah” would become one of the most haunting, mutable and oft-performed songs in American musical history. (Telegraph). 
It ended up released by the indie label Passport. (Clashmusic)

Leonard’s version failed to earn due recognition of the momentous song.Despite “Hallelujah” poor initial recognition, after John Cale, whose cover of the song generated enormous popularity. John helped shape it with his own recording in 1991, when Cohen faxed him 15 pages of lyrics.

On 21 December 2008, "Hallelujah" became the first song in 51 years to be numbers 1 and 2 on the UK Charts, while Cohen's version reached 36th position.

Rufus Wainwright (Canadian-American singer and musician) version of the song is featured on the soundtrack to Shrek.

Following his original 1984 studio-album version, Cohen performed the original song on his world tour in 1985, but live performances during his 1988 and 1993 tours almost invariably contained a quite different set of lyrics.

As you may know, many artists performed cover versions (over 300) of the song.

Which cover versions you liked most?

       1- ...................... 2-....................... 3-.....................

Dessert:
“Hallelujah” was played on the accordion at Neil Gaiman’s wedding in Michael Chabon’s apartment.

Digestive schnapps
Read the sources on the previous 4 links and retell your own version of the iconic song.

BONUS track.

enjoy his voice on The sounds of Silence.