Movie Music Monday – Shrek

The Shrek movies were such a big part of my older boy’s childhood.  They loved them, and I did, too.  I am not ashamed to admit that I am a tad bit excited that they just announced a 5th installment to the series.  I can relate a bit to this ogre!

They’ve always seemed to work some classic tunes into the series.  Bad Reputation, Funkytown, On Top of the World, I’m On My Way, The Immigrant Song, Holding Out For a Hero, and so many others fit perfectly into the scenes of this fairy tale.

It was a Leonard Cohen song that struck a chord with me from the first movie – Hallelujah.  It was released on his Various Positions album and had little success.  However, when John Cale’s 1991 version appeared in the 2001 Shrek film it gained a whole new life.

I’m sure there are more now, but in 2008, someone estimated that there were at least 300-350 versions of the song that had been recorded.  Randy from Mostly Music Covers may have a more accurate and current number.

According to Cohen, he estimated that he had 80-180 versions of the song that he wrote, mainly because of the various renderings of the same line. After his death, his notebooks showed at least 150 versions.

Cohen was asked the meaning of the song many times and gave plenty of answers.  One of them was: “This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that’s what I mean by ‘Hallelujah.’”

Another time he stated, “there is a religious hallelujah, but there are many other ones. When one looks at the world, there’s only one thing to say, and it’s hallelujah”. k.d. Lang, who also recorded the song said in an interview shortly after Cohen’s death that she considered the song to be about “the struggle between having human desire and searching for spiritual wisdom. It’s being caught between those two places.“

Rufus Wainwright, who turns 51 today, recorded his version with an arrangement that was almost identical to John Cale’s version.  Wainwright’s version was the one that appeared on the Official Shrek Soundtrack, despite the fact that Cale’s version appears in the movie. The soundtrack went on to go 2 times platinum!

Happy birthday, Rufus Wainwright!