No. 19

Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley (1994) Video - On the evening of May 29, 1997, Jeff Buckley went for an impromptu swim in Wolf River Harbor just outside of Memphis. He was stone sober, fully clothed, and singing Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. In the wake of a passing boat, he drowned. Neither he nor the public realized the musical genius they'd just lost. Although his only studio album, Grace, had been released, it had not yet achieved significant success. Posthumously, Jimmy Page called Grace "close to his favorite album of the decade." The masterpiece of the album is this cover of a 1984 Leonard Cohen song. Like Otis Redding, Jeff Buckley never had the chance to fully develop his substantial gifts.