"Hallelujah" for Idol
Who's American Idol's biggest winner so far? The answer might surprise you.
David Archuleta has the buzz. Chikezie just might have had the performance of the week. But it's Jeff Buckley who scored the No. 1 hit.
"Hallelujah," a Leonard Cohen song released by the late Buckley 14 years ago, came out of nowhere to top iTunes' sales chart this past week after one Idol performance, and one big Idol shout-out.
According to Buckley's record label, the song, which slipped to No. 5 by Friday, is the first No. 1 anything on a U.S. chart for the acclaimed singer-songwriter who accidentally drowned in 1997 at the age of 30.
"We couldn't pay people to make that choice," said Buckley's mother, Mary Guibert, of Jason Castro's decision to sing "Hallelujah" on the Mar. 4 Idol.
The song earned Castro raves, Cohen a rare prime-time mention for a poet, and Buckley a tribute from none other than the Dark Lord of the Sith, judge Simon Cowell.
"The Jeff Buckley version of that song is one of my favorite songs of all time," Cowell said.
Less than 48 hours later, Buckley's "Hallelujah," a six-minute-plus novel compared to Castro's 90-second condensed version, was the second most downloaded song on iTunes—and climbing.
The power of Idol, not to mention the pull of Buckley, an influential, though never top-selling, performer, had spoken. And not just on iTunes. Grace, the 1994 album that featured "Hallelujah," stood in 10th place, and in the company of giants such as Michael Jackson's Thriller, on Billboard's latest pop catalog album chart.
continue...
David Archuleta has the buzz. Chikezie just might have had the performance of the week. But it's Jeff Buckley who scored the No. 1 hit.
"Hallelujah," a Leonard Cohen song released by the late Buckley 14 years ago, came out of nowhere to top iTunes' sales chart this past week after one Idol performance, and one big Idol shout-out.
According to Buckley's record label, the song, which slipped to No. 5 by Friday, is the first No. 1 anything on a U.S. chart for the acclaimed singer-songwriter who accidentally drowned in 1997 at the age of 30.
"We couldn't pay people to make that choice," said Buckley's mother, Mary Guibert, of Jason Castro's decision to sing "Hallelujah" on the Mar. 4 Idol.
The song earned Castro raves, Cohen a rare prime-time mention for a poet, and Buckley a tribute from none other than the Dark Lord of the Sith, judge Simon Cowell.
"The Jeff Buckley version of that song is one of my favorite songs of all time," Cowell said.
Less than 48 hours later, Buckley's "Hallelujah," a six-minute-plus novel compared to Castro's 90-second condensed version, was the second most downloaded song on iTunes—and climbing.
The power of Idol, not to mention the pull of Buckley, an influential, though never top-selling, performer, had spoken. And not just on iTunes. Grace, the 1994 album that featured "Hallelujah," stood in 10th place, and in the company of giants such as Michael Jackson's Thriller, on Billboard's latest pop catalog album chart.
continue...
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