... brilliant as it is, is becoming massively hackneyed and overused. No fault of LC's of course, and great that he'll reap the financial rewards, but enough already.
And yeah, I can't really see JLS pulling it off. Or any of them, frankly - dreadful Diana included.

This is the path previously trodden by Knockin' On Heaven's Door, which I happened to stumble across on the show a couple of weeks back.

what songs would the Word Massive like the finalists to sing?
C'mon, I bet Louise Walsh et al are dying for some tips?

I did think of Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner but I think suits the occasion better.

She made Hallelujah "her own" by yodelling her way through it like a second rate Delores O'Roirdan. And she sounds like Orville when she sings the word "you" in nothing compares to you. And will someone please lend her a brush, she appears to have lost hers some years ago.

Given the "need" for Pop Idols (or whatever they're called) to over egg and embellish anything and everything, this song will always be doomed to failure, as it is best done simply and straightforwardly, which is why Buckley, Wainwright, Lang and Williams (Katherine) do it so well. Add too much and it suffers, step forward even wonderful singers like Christine Collister and Willie Nelson. Or you can totally wreck it like Bono.
Even laughing Len can spoil it, as his last live outings in the 70s showed. Thankfully, this time arounfd it was/is a fairly straight performance, but he has gone back to saying "Do you" rather than the more, to me, favourable (and rhyming) "Do ya'"

No contestant is older than 30, now the poor exploited widower has gone. Hallelujah is a world-weary old song touching on stuff that's quite adult (I always thought it sat oddly in Shrek). Diane's performance was no more woeful than most I've seen, but the sheer incongruity of an 18 year old girl singing it should have sent them back to the Mariah Carey songbook sharpish.

for simon cowell et al it's been done on the dannish pop idol

"White Man in Hammersmith Palais" in a wailing ballad stylee.

Glad Cohen is making some bucks though, he has to retire sometime.
Shame such a great song is being ritually slaughtered every time you turn on TV. Solution? Dont watch.

..as Jeff Buckley's.
Never has it been more about the singer and not the song than with this guy.

Buckley's version is probably the only song I like by him. Still can't "get" "Grace", it leaves me cold, all that boring riffing
and show offy singing.

...he's the man to call for Hallelujah - keep it simple. Have to agree on Jeff Buckley - I just don't get it...

This lass, despite her aversion to a steadily held note, is one of the better amateurs I've heard, better than some pros even, but that doesn't mean she's troubling any of the classic singers of this song, even with the aid of studio manipulation in the possible future recording.

Nobody here likes the Jeff Buckley version at all, or even gives it credit for a smidgeon of quality? I smell the acrid scent of 'aversion to anything popular regardless of its artistic merit'-ism, or something that might make more sense. Gotta love the whole 'indie-kid' attitude.

I hate the fact that (insert shitty musicians name here) use his name to appear as if they know good music, to show that they're 'sensitive', or some other bullshit just to try and get sales by association. That and the even more disgraceful name drop by lazy journalists. "What, he plays an acoustic and sings ballads?" *opens Word and types* "...shades of Jeff Buckley".

I like the Jeff Buckley version. Maybe best of all.

A three minute response at 7.15am. Now that's a quick response. Glad to meet a fellow early bird!

Quite the opposite in fact fellow, I'm about to retire for the, erm, morning.

Back on topic...I do believe that these programs, and their money loving producers, step forward Cowell, sell their airtime to the highest bidding record labels. Each week there's someone wanting to hawk an album, be it Take That or Mariah Carey (my missus is an avid fan...honest), and I swear the show operates on a similar basis as Radio 1 and the like, whereby you sell airtime to those who want a higher chart position for a premium.

Not sure it quite works for Cohen or Buckley (surely who's version upon which this will be based?), but then Sony has always had an open mind as far as the latters catalogue goes, there is still an album/tours/recording sessions etc. to be payed for after all.

The dreadful caterwauling of the Jeff Buckley version is on the radio far too often for my taste. Thank goodness I rarely come in contact with chart music. Does the world really need another version?

I think the album has about 4 great tracks (the first 3 are superb), but is let down by the abysmal Lilac Wine and the even worse Hallelujah. It's just a crap song. IMHO of course.

I quite like Diane in X Factor but then I do generally like unusual vocalists eg Sinead O'Connor, David Surkamp, Roger Chapman, Geddy Lee etc.

made available this month are by the Welsh opera singer Katherine Jenkins, and the (also opera) group Il Divo.

Heard a snippet of Katherines on the adverts, ghastly, utterly ghastly. A clip can be heard at the following link:
http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;-1;-1;-1&sku=8321...
Il Divo is linked from there too, but I suggest you don't bother with either.

Rock and Roll Mop Herring....I just start listening from Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East and the comment on fish in an old pod cast got me and my mate Nick thinking..........

The Roots of Rock N' Roll were the blues, played by legends like Jellyfish Morton, John Lee FishHooker and Blind LemonSole Jefferson from the Missisippi delta or "Jazzers" like Gill Evans, Thelonius Monkfish and Miles Crayfish. White men like Elfish Parsley and Jellied Eel Lewis then copied and popularized their styles. Prior to this the charts were filled mainly with white “crooners” like Ling Crosby, and Sprat Ling Sole.

In Britain Cliff Pilchard and the Shadows, featuring Cullen Skank Marvin as a seminal guitar hero, played a pale imitation of their American idols.

In 1963 the world changed from Black and White to Colour. The Beatles took over the beat music market, revolutionizing popular music by blending the R&B and Soul from the like of Salmon Dave and The Spinners with the pop sensibility of Tin Pan-Fried Alley.

The Beatles produced many classic songs like ...........Stickleback Writer, from the LP Dover Sole written by John Lemon Sole with Ringo Starfish on drums and Trawl Mcartney on Sea Bass.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Bob Dylan sang “The Tides They are a Changing, Once my Ship Comes in”. The Sea-Byrds produced “8 Fathoms Down” In 1965 Bob himself was to go “Electric” with the groundbreaking “Bringing All The Fish and Chip Suppers Back Home”. Meanwhile over in California the Beach Bhoys genius, Brain Coral Wilson, was producing such classics as The Lonley Sea-lion. Inspired by The Beatles Dover Sole, and smoking seaweed he upped the ante by producing the all-time classic “Fish Flake Sounds”. The Beatles replied with “Disolver.” Brain then became lost and took to bed for 10 years trying to make Sea Mile, an overambitious concept album.

In June 1967 the Beatles released their masterpiece “Captain Birdseye’s Oyster Sauce Club Foot”.

By 1967 the era of Psychedelia had arrived spearheaded by the likes of Frank Snapper, with significant releases being Burnt Tunafish Sandwich and Pink Gin with “A Fishbowl Full of Gravel”. Unfortunately much of the music suffered from widespread smoking of fish, seaweed and sniffing white lines of clam chowder among many of the musicians. The Beatles continued on their ride to the top producing the sprawling double LP “The Whitebait Album”. After this “Crabby Road” signaled the end for the band after they disintegrated when John met the Japanise artist Egg-Yolk Ono . American band Jefferson Airplane mutated into Jefferson Starfish and Jefferson Submarine. The dream was really over.

Bob was badly injured in a water-skiing accident and went to “get his head together in the country” with the Band. Producing ..................

After the Beatles broke up and Paul Simon split with Carp Garfunkel after the enormous success of their multi-platinum “Troubled Dover-Sole Bridgewater”, who did duets with likes of Judy Tench, we entered the era of "Prog Rock". Early exponents of this genre were...King Prawn Crimson and EELP........later on it became more sophisticated with the likes of Pike Oldfield.

Also at this time in the early 70's Clam Rock exploded and who can forget the likes of Elton Prawn singing “Goodbye Yellow Snapper” or Cod Stewart with “Atlantic Salmon Crossing”.

Punk Rock blew this scene apart with exciting bands like......Stiff Little Fish Fingers featuring Hake Burns on guitar and Fergal Sharky of the Underwater Tones although Squid Vicious other styles of music were popular, with Bob Marley and the Whalers introducing Chub Reggae to a mass market and more idiosyncratic acts like Skate Bush producing unique new sounds with timeless albums like “The Flounders of Love”. Musicians like Fish, Seal, Simply Red Snapper and of course Stingray, formerly of the Polefish, continued selling millions during the 80's.................Some bands re-invented themselves through the 60's to the 70's and 80's, probably the best example being Fleetwood Mackerel and but what about...................................Help Nurse!