How Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' Became Everybody's 'Hallelujah'

How Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' Became Everybody's 'Hallelujah'

A new book traces the the song's strange rise to pop-cultural ubiquity. Columbia/Passport; DreamWorks; ITV Pop standards don't really get written anymore. Most of the best-known standards were composed before the arrival of rock and roll; perhaps something about the new brand of mass-marketed, Ed Sullivan-fueled stardom just didn't quite jive with the generous old-world tradition of passing songs around the circuit, offering to share.

theatlantic.com

(article from 2012)