10 Greatest Vocal Performances In Rock Music History

There's a certain formula that goes into crafting the perfect cover song. Even though you don't have to worry about writing a note of music, it's up to the performer to bring as much of themselves to the recording as possible, making something that can stand apart from the original version of the song as well as do the track justice. Leonard Cohen may have aimed for heartache when he first made the song Hallelujah, but there wasn't any competition once Jeff Buckley got ahold of it.

Sticking with only a clean acoustic guitar to anchor him, this entire song is practically a showcase for Jeff's vocal delivery, pouring over every word in the song to tell the story of a love gone awry, from lines about love being as simple as musical harmony to finally losing faith with his lover. Compared to the other songs off of Grace, Jeff sounds almost operatic in some spots of this song, almost performing this song much like an actor would, making sure every word has a certain amount of emotion to it before continuing on.

By the time he gets to the final verses, it practically sounds like he's on the verge of tears in the studio, with the music serving as his only way to share his true feelings with the world. Plenty of vocalists have tried their hand at out high noting each other back in the day, but a song like this is where you get to the human being underneath all of those vocal runs.