httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD6fvzGIBfQ
The most popular version of Leonard Cohen’s song ‘Hallelujah’ is really a cover of a cover.
As fans mourn the loss of singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen, who died at age 82, many are listening to versions of his hit, Hallelujah.
Cohen, a meticulous songwriter, spent years “Banging his head on the floor, because he couldn’t solve this song,” says Light, who wrote a book about Cohen called The Holy or the Broken.
It ultimately took Cohen five years to write Hallelujah, but many more to find an audience for the song.
Cale’s version of the song, which sounds more like the popular version we know today, appears on a 1991 Leonard Cohen tribute album called I’m Your Fan.
That’s the famous version of Hallelujah: A Jeff Buckley cover of John Cale’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s song.
As Gladwell notes, it was 15 years since Cohen originally recorded Hallelujah, before it was hit.