"HALLELUJAH" JOINS "IMAGINE" AS ICONIC SONG, PER NMPA

Leonard Cohen’s hugely influential “Hallelujah,” which has been covered thousands of times and amassed north of 5b streams in assorted incarnations, has been honored with the National Music Publishers Association's Iconic Song Award. The only other song to receive this recognition from the NMPA: John Lennon's "Imagine."

You may now add a version of "Hallelujah" by Merck Mercuriadis to the archive as he and his Hipgnosis Song Management team exult in the tune’s ongoing impact.

“It’s an honor and a privilege for Hipgnosis to be custodians of Leonard Cohen’s incomparable songs,” said Merck after changing into a black turtleneck and lighting a Gauloise. “In a catalog filled with classics, including 'Suzanne,' 'Bird on a Wire,' 'I’m Your Man' and 'First We Take Manhattan,' 'Hallelujah' towers above them all. This honor from the NMPA acknowledges how important it is in the lives of people all over the globe.”

This latest laurel is bestowed just before a new documentary feature, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey a Song, hits screens via Columbia Pictures. The Dan Geller/Danya Goldfine-directed film (due 7/1) was inspired by Alan Light’s 2012 book The Holy of the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah.”

If that’s not enough Cohen for you, you’ll be thrilled to know that a new 17-track anthology of the Canadian troubadour’s best-loved material (including a 2008 Glastonbury performance of you know what) rolled out on DSPs earlier this month and will be available in handsome vinyl and CD sets on 10/14.

Cohen’s son, Adam, shared this vibrant memory: “In the early ’80s while writing Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen went into the offices of his record company, who—unmoved by Cohen’s sales figures—memorably said, ‘Leonard, we know you’re great, but are you any good?’ We’ve come a long and beautiful way from then! No one could have predicted the juggernaut of culture that 'Hallelujah' has become.”

Is it wrong that the song is the basis of our favorite drinking game?