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Not exactly a worship song as the title may suggest – I don’t even remember how I came across this. This song is rather popular apparently but I’ve never really know what it was, let alone found out there’s so many versions of it (I love exploring different arrangements!) I think this song might have been on the soundtrack for House in some episode. Its definitely in the soundtrack for two major movies – see if you can figure out what they are.

This version by Jeff Buckley is often regarded as the definitive version, but isn’t the original!

Original version by the songwriter Leonard Cohen (Canadian!)

Yet another take by Rufus Wainwright:

If you’re so inclined, Justin Timberlake did a recent live cover for this song as well for the Haiti fundraiser – you can find that on youtube as well – not putting it here since its not very different from the arrangements above.

Now name the movieS this song showed up in 🙂

Heard this on the radio last week, and then heard it again today – quite catchy and simple, so I looked up what the song is. I think this pick is something more in line with you guys’ taste, as opposed to… rap and 8 bit music :P.

It’s been such a long time since I’ve recommended a song that I’ve forgotten how to link the song to iTunes Store.

Today on my way home from work, I heard a commercial promoting Corinne Bailey Rae’s new album. I’ve always found a particular affinity to her music, maybe in part due to her jazzy tone or the fact that its just overall relaxing to listen to her music. I say its particular because I don’t like ALL her songs, but the ones I do like, I actuallylove a lot. One can really picture themselves sitting Starbucks drinking a coffee, while watching life pass by, against the backdrop of a warm sunsetting sky. But I digress, I came home and quickly checked out the popular songs on her new album on ITS, and immediately fell in love with the following track. Will be exploring the rest of this album in detail soon!

You Tube Link

I’ve always wanted to watch Annie since it is one of those Broadway ‘classics’, except I wasn’t sure whether I was going to catch this one. The show was in Seattle for a limited time only (Feb 12 to 14) since it is a national touring company, and I was busy the entire weekend. I had to skip a birthday party to watch this show, and even then I wasn’t sure I’d have went until very last minute after I got off work. I ended up watching the show by myself, which worked out because I found out there was student rush tickets 1 hour before the show started, so I got a really good seat (main floor center, 11th row or so) for a really cheap price :).

I thought Annie was like… Rodgers and Hammerstein old (like ’50s) but it ended being more recent than I thought – the musical was written in 1977, and apparently the lyricist is still around and is the director for this national tour.

As expected, the tunes are more classical styled, with lots of reprisals (makes me wonder why newer musicals don’t have much reprisals anymore), and overall the performance was well done as it definitely gave off an uplifting and heartwarming vibe. The plot is set in the Great Depression (1930s) and the plot talks about some of the national issues faced during that era (e.g. high unemployment rates) and how we ought to be optimistic even in tough times – the entire theme seems oddly applicable to the current “Great Recession”. The casting was impressive as well – there were I think 7 children involved in rather important roles, and more impressively, there’s a dog that’s part of the cast and the plot as well.

The musical is around 2.5 hours long with intermission. The encouraging tone is a plus for me, and I’ll give it 3.5 stars.

A strange pick this week. If you watched the pilot of this season’s House, AND stayed around for the closing credits, you’d have heard this already. If not, here it is below (this is different from the one he did with House at the talent show).

Well, I came across such an odd choice because I watched a play this weekend that made reference to Alexander Hamilton, but I didn’t know who he was (aside from the fact he’s an important US historical figure). My friend told me to watch this to learn about Alexander Hamilton, which apparently is a Lin-Manuel Miranda rap of Hamilton (who’s head shows up on the $10 USD bill) that he performed for the Obamas.