Jeff Buckley → Leonard Cohen → Iggy Pop

Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" is the one everybody knows. Who wrote the song and put it on record first, long before Buckley sang it?Leonard Cohenknew

Leonard Cohen

Hallelujah · 1985 · via Jeff Buckley

The man who wrote it cut it first, back in 1985, so this is the song before Jeff ever touched it. Play the two side by side and you'll hear exactly what Jeff decided to keep.

You know Leonard Cohen's quiet hymns. On "Death of a Ladies' Man," the title track of his most divisive album, who shares the songwriting credit with him?Phil Spectorknewkept

The Indelicates

Death of a Ladies’ Man · 1977 · via Leonard Cohen

Cohen co-wrote this one with Phil Spector, and you can hear the Wall of Sound swallowing the poet whole on his own cut. Then put on The Indelicates' later version to hear the song standing up without all that weather.

Leonard Cohen co-wrote "You Want It Darker" with Patrick Leonard. Which singer later stepped up and recorded it himself?Iggy Poplearned

Leonard Cohen

You Want It Darker · 2016 · via Leonard Cohen

Cohen built this one with Patrick Leonard, and Iggy Pop took it on later. Play them back to back and listen to the same dark request coming out of a very different throat.