Leonard Cohen wrote 150 verses for Hallelujah, but his label rejected the entire song.
In short: Leonard Cohen spent five years crafting his masterpiece, famously banging his head on the floor in a hotel room to find the right words. Despite this intensity, his record label initially refused to release it. Today, it is one of the most covered songs in history, transcending its humble, rejected origins.
When Leonard Cohen released Hallelujah on his 1984 album Various Positions, it was met with indifference. Columbia Records had rejected the album entirely, telling Cohen they knew he was great but were unsure if he was any good. The song languished in obscurity until John Cale recorded a version in 1991, which shifted the tone from Cohen’s original dirge-like delivery to something more sincere. Cale’s arrangement, which he pieced together after Cohen faxed him 15 pages of lyrics, became the blueprint for almost every subsequent performance.
The song’s evolution is defined by its lyrical malleability. Cohen reportedly wrote between 80 and 180 draft verses, and performers frequently mix and match them to suit their own interpretations. While Cohen viewed the song as a way to affirm faith in life with enthusiasm, others have reimagined it as a sexual composition, a liturgical hymn, or a meditation on the struggle between human desire and spiritual wisdom. This versatility has allowed it to survive what critics call its banalization through constant use in film, television, and reality singing competitions.
Jeff Buckley’s 1994 recording remains perhaps the most acclaimed, though it did not achieve widespread commercial success until years after his 1997 death. By 2008, the song’s ubiquity sparked a chart battle in the UK, where a fan campaign attempted to push Buckley’s version to number one to protest the commercialism of The X Factor, whose winner, Alexandra Burke, had also released a cover. Despite Cohen once joking that there should be a moratorium on the song, he later expressed happiness that it continued to be sung, affirming its status as a rare piece of music that remains sublime despite its constant reinvention.
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