The problem with these sorts of discussions is no ones is willing to put their neck under the guillotine blade, rather they'd like to sit with every one else on a fence that seems infinite with hesitancy. Well let's not have any more of that rubbish, let's have some blind lustful bias, some independent thought by a writer who knows that people aren't going to all agree with what's obviously an opinion on a matter that opinion dominates.
Songs come in all manner of sizes, with all sorts of types, like food some appeals to you more than it does to me, I refuse to eat pizza or call dance music anything other than repugnant noise aimed at the fools who think that because the see idiots drugged up in some Spanish night club dancing to it, they'd better like it to. As we are all well aware, music enjoyed by people so off their head on drugs they can't actually make out what's even playing, shouldn't be followed as a guideline of what's actually good.
You readers may already be feeling rather put off by the flat out arrogance of this, but you can't deny the fact I'm no longer doing what so many do and say no song is the best, it's obvious that there is a best song ever.
To work it out, let's look from outside the box, which song has had over 200 recorded cover versions in less than 25 years of it's original release? Let me tell you which songs haven't, Stairway To Heaven hasn't, Sweet Caroline hasn't, even the popular classic Land of the Rising sun never amassed that ludicrous number.
Which song has held 3 top 40 positions at the same time in the UK charts? Ok Unchained Melody did this (and managed to reach #1 in the UK charts 4 times) but that was just luck. Which song has been so well bought as a cover that 2 of the top selling spots in British music history are held by the same song?
Of course it's Hallelujah, the greatest song that ever is, and ever will be, with mass appeal from the Popstar appealing singer and talent show winner Alexandria Burke, to the religiously suggestive Cohen original. The Jeff Buckley immortal cover from his Grace album, to the John Cale vocal extravaganza that first lead to Buckley hearing the song. Greats such as Bono, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Bon Jovi have all covered the track, and lets be honest, they should know a thing or two about great songs.
So what is the greatest song ever, actually about? Well, if you break the song down, Cohen originally wrote around 15 verses for the song (and faxed each and every one of them to Cale when he requested them), mixing religious (primarily Jewish) views with sexual innuendo. The culmination of the more common versions, leave out many of Cohen's more religious verses, leaving the song as a more sexual track, which is effectually a song about orgasms. The blame for this lies solely with John Cale, who deliberately picked out what he termed the cheeky parts, the version Cale did found it's way onto a Cohen tribute album, Cale's own album and 2 movies, and features a strong piano backed version of the vocals.
Buckley's which was released originally on Grace (though he had referred to his version from Live a' Olympia as his favourite), was the first to take the song away from the piano, onto the 6 stringed friend of many modern rock stars, the electric guitar. Buckley kept much of the cheeky side of the song, as did Rufus Wainwright and most of the others seem to keep the Buckley version.
Though off the back of Cale's success, Cohen (who had originally done the song, with the more profound religious lyrics), re-released the track with a more cheeky approach himself, totally restructuring the track from his original version.
One of the great appeals of the track is the simple way it's sung, the catchy hook, that will have you after the first listen. There's nothing about the singing of it that anyone should feel worried about, the song is simple to sing, with no overly difficult changes of note, of need to rush through any part of the track. This adds to it's appeal, it's a song that you know you can do a good version of it your drunk, or if your emotional, or if your happy or if... you see where this is going.
In fact the songs use as an emotional track is often shown up in TV shows, where it regularly seems like every show ever invented has had the track play on it, things like Shrek, House, Scrubs, West Wing, The O.C (which used the track 3 times), E.R and One Tree Hill just to name a few. The song's sorrowful and almost mournful sound gives it the saddening feel that the shows regularly need in a piece of music.
Admittedly, you might not agree with my overly biased approach to this piece, but it's impossible to name a better song, that's why this takes the rank as the greatest song of all time.