Hallelujah (Deep Purple song)

"Hallelujah"
Single by Deep Purple
B-side	"April Part I"
Released	25 July 1969 [1]
Recorded	7 & 12 June 1969
Length	3:38
Label	Harvest (UK) Tetragrammaton (US)
Songwriter(s)	Roger Greenaway Roger Cook
Producer(s)	Deep Purple
Deep Purple singles chronology
"Emmaretta" (1969) "Hallelujah" (1969) "Black Night" (1970)

"Hallelujah" is a song by English hard rock group Deep Purple, released in 1969. It is the first single to feature singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover and released in-between their 1969 eponymous album and the live Concerto for Group and Orchestra. The B-side was an edit of the instrumental album track "April".

The track was recorded on 7 and 12 June 1969. At the time, Glover had not yet joined the band and played on the track as a session musician.^[2][3]

The song was written by Roger Greenaway and Roger Cook, and originally released as "I am the Preacher" by The Derek Lawrence Statement earlier the same year.^[4] Deep Purple's cover version flopped, despite TV appearances to promote the record in the UK.^[5] Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore told the Record Mirror that the new band "need to have a commercial record in Britain", and described the song as "an in-between sort of thing"—a median between what the band would normally make but with an added commercial motive.^[5] Gillan was unhappy about the single because he did not write the lyrics.^[3]

Charts

Chart (1969)	Peak position
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[6]	16

References

1. Popoff, Martin (2016). The Deep Purple Family (2nd ed.). Wymer Publishing. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-908724-42-7.
2. Robinson, Simon (1995). Deep Purple in Rock (CD Booklet). Deep Purple. London: EMI. p. 5. 7243 8 3401925.
3. Gillan & Cohen 1993, p. 62.
4. 45cat's entry about The Derek Lawrence Statement: "I am the Preacher" 1969 7"
5. Bloom, Jerry (2008). Black Knight: Ritchie Blackmore. Omnibus Press. p. 128. ISBN 978-1846097577.
6. "Deep Purple – Hallelujah". hitparade.ch.

Sources

• Gillan, Ian; Cohen, David (1993). Child in Time – The Life Story of the Singer from Deep Purple. Smith Gryphon Limited. ISBN 1-85685-048-X.