The Bolt

In case you haven't already seen my research on this you might want to check out the article on the versions of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. I would classify the arrangement that Lee sang as "Version 3, verses 1 and 3". You can also see who sings what version on my article about Jeff Buckley.

Lee does do a very good job, I can't really say anything bad about his performance; take a look:

But I was disappointed in the length - it seemed way too short, perhaps he should have been able to sing that song when it was just down to two performers and he had time for more verses. It felt like the arranger had condensed Lord of the Rings into a 25-page booklet.

Again, I was surprised at the choice of verses 1 and 3, but perhaps verse 2 was a little too sexual for prime time American Idol; verse 5 seems like the obvious choice but admittedly that's been done to death. In truth verse 3 is one of my favorites, so after I was done watching and re-watching Lee's performance, it made sense and really appealed to me.

Jeff Buckley's version is still my overall favorite, but for a song that even Leonard Cohen considers to be covered too many times, Lee did a great job.