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In 1984 — the same year that Bruce Springsteen, Prince and Madonna topped the pop charts with “Born in the USA,” “Purple Rain,” and “Like a Virgin” — there was another classic that never saw the light of day saw.
Leonard Cohen’s commanding tune “Hallelujah” was rejected – along with the rest of his album “Various Positions” – by then-CBS Records boss Walter Yetnikoff. “He said, ‘Leonard, we know you’re great, but we don’t know if you’re good,'” recalls the late singer-songwriter in new documentary Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song. . ‘ which opens in theaters on Friday.
But that would prove to be just a “small fall” in the song’s long rise to the pantheon of iconic tunes. A triumph of both persistence and undeniable brilliance, it was a determined, decade-long journey that took John Cale’s Hallelujah and Jeff Buckley covers to the ubiquity of Shrek and American Idol.
“It took so many years to complete, like a big bottle of wine, that when it finally struck it was unstoppable,” John Lissauer – who produced Cohen’s original version of Hallelujah – told The Post.
Today it is a song that brings grace, grandeur and dignity to any momentous occasion. “It’s a song that people use at funerals and weddings, and they use it when their baby is born,” said Alan Light, whose recently updated book The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, & the Oddly Ascent of ‘Hallelujah’ inspired the current documentary.
Cohen had been working on writing “Hallelujah” for years – going through hundreds of verses in notebook after notebook – when he first performed it for Lissauer in 1983. “It was completely different from what we know now,” he said. “He jingled it on this little nylon [string] Guitar. So we sat at the piano and I started playing it like gospel.”
Although the lyrics were mysterious and the meaning left open to interpretation, Lissauer knew immediately that Hallelujah was something special: “I said, ‘This is really an important song. This could get ridiculously big. It could touch anyone.” It turned out to be exactly what we expected – just 20 years too soon.”
After Columbia Records, a division of CBS, rejected “Various Positions” – and its future classic “Hallelujah” – the album finally received an unannounced release in the US on an independent label in 1985. Meanwhile, Cohen began experimenting with different versions of the “Hallelujah” lyrics in his performances, taking the song from its more spiritual origins into more mundane, sensual territory.
Cohen received “a wonderful endorsement” – as he describes in the documentary – when Bob Dylan discovered “Hallelujah” and covered it on tour in 1988. “It’s even more remarkable that the one guy who saw something interesting in that song back then is Bob Dylan,” Light said. “I mean, that’s why he’s Bob Dylan.”
Then Velvet Underground co-founder Cale covered “Hallelujah” on the 1991 tribute album I’m Your Fan: The Songs of Leonard Cohen. In fact, it was Cale who adapted several versions of the lyrics to the standard version that we know today. And it was Cale’s remake, first heard by the late singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley, that inspired him to include “Hallelujah” on his 1994 debut album Grace.
After Buckley’s drowning death at the age of 30 in 1997, his more angelic, accessible version of “Hallelujah” became the definitive version for many. “I think there’s an intimacy,” Light said. “It feels like Jeff is whispering in your ear. And it’s much younger. Leonard recorded this song when he was 50 years old.”
But Hallelujah was destined for even greater things when it was chosen for a pivotal emotional scene in 2001’s animated blockbuster Shrek. In the documentary, Shrek co-director Vicky Jenson explains how she cut out “the bad parts” of the lyrics while editing the song for the film. And although it’s Cale’s version of the song Shrek sings in the film, Rufus Wainwright’s rendition is included on the hit soundtrack.
After “Shrek” made “Hallelujah” a house song that lasted for generations, the song became a popular choice on TV singing competitions such as “American Idol”, “The Voice” and “The X Factor”. After Alexandra Burke won the UK “X Factor” with “Hallelujah” in the 2008 final, her version of the song went to #1 in the UK.
When “Hallelujah” became a timeless tune that will live forever, Cohen “was tickled about it,” Lissauer said. In fact, the song took over culture just days after Cohen’s death and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election victory when it was performed by Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton in the cold opening of “Saturday Night Live.”
“It was that song that you could turn to and get the feel that they were looking for,” Light said.
