John Cale

John Cale (b. 1942), a founding member of The Velvet Underground, recorded a spare piano version of ‘Hallelujah’ in 1991 for the Cohen tribute album I’m Your Fan. Cohen faxed him roughly fifteen pages of verses; Cale picked a handful and built the arrangement that nearly every later cover, Buckley’s included, is descended from. He is the hidden link most listeners never hear about — the reason Buckley’s famous version sounds nothing like Cohen’s original.