Who doesn't have at least one cover of the seemingly ubiquitous song "Hallelujah" in their iTunes collection, if not the Jeff Buckley version. Along with pulling the first all nighter to finish that term paper and taking PS 22: City Politics, possessing this song seems to be a near requirement of all college freshmen.

Twenty-five years ago, a character on the TV show The Young Ones named Neal--the hippie--said, "I'm beginning to feel like a Leonard Cohen record, cause nobody ever listens to me." Today, in contrast, one particular Leonard Cohen song is featured prominently in no less than three separate episodes of teen uberdrama The OC, and can be heard in at least twenty-four separate movies and TV episodes, almost always as the soundtrack to a montage of people being sad.

What I hope to show today is how, exactly, that happened to a song called "Hallelujah."

After reading this I simultaneously both wanted to delete my copy of this song AND listen to it as well.

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