You’d think that covering Leonard Cohen would be easy. After all, the source material was always rich and resonant. And his singing voice didn’t have a ton of range, certainly not anything near what most professional singers possess.
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And yet there was something about Cohen’s way with a song and that earth-scraping, oracular voice that made his own versions undeniably iconic. That’s why we have to pay tribute to those who took on Cohen’s stuff and came away with something special. We eliminated Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” from consideration here (or any version of “Hallelujah” for that matter) because that’s too obvious. Try instead these five covers of the master that spread across a long stretch of time and run the gamut in terms of the styles of the artists performing them.
1. ”Bird on the Wire” by Judy Collins (1968)
Collins was one of the earliest artists to cover Cohen, and also one of the most frequent (she was able to release an entire album’s worth of her versions of his songs at one point). “Bird on the Wire” might be the best of them all (even if she changed the article in the title from “a” to “the”). Turning it into a country weeper gave the song a different type of feel from Leonard’s somber original, but it works spectacularly well. It also leaves Collins a little bit more room to play with the melody, adding a little bit of bluesy wailing while the pedal steel played by Buddy Emmons whines away in the background.
2. “Everybody Knows” by Don Henley (1995)
Cohen’s jaundiced take on the state of the world has invited many different cover versions throughout the years. But Henley taking “Everybody Knows” on proved to be an excellent fit between singer and material. After all, Henley has been known to take an acerbic look at the injustices and inanities of the world on his own songs like “Dirty Laundry” and “If Dirt Were Dollars.” You can hear that he agrees with every word of Cohen’s diatribe as he tears into it. Putting the song in a rock setting gives the message even more punch. Add in some tough guitar from Jimmy Rip and Benmont Tench’s insinuating keyboards, and you’ve got a crackerjack version of this classic.
3. “Tonight Will Be Fine” by Teddy Thompson (2005)
Cohen’s tendency to deadpan his way through his songs meant that you could sometimes miss the emotion playing about in the lyrics. Thompson, performing the relatively obscure “Tonight Will Be Fine” at a 2005 tribute to Cohen (immortalized in the film Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man), makes sure to get deep inside the lyric, teasing out every line for its importance. As a result, he locates the heartbreak of a man who’s trying to cling to every moment with his lover because he knows that she’s slipping away from him. The title suggests says that everything is OK right now, but the unspoken punch line is that tomorrow could be trouble. Thompson plays that vibe to the hilt.
[RELATED: The 18 Best Leonard Cohen Quotes]
4. “Tower of Song” by Tom Jones (2012)
Jones has been releasing late-period albums that feature his inimitable versions of the work of standout songwriters. Released in 2012, Spirit in the Room features takes on Paul McCartney, Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, Paul Simon, and others. The track that hits home the hardest is “Tower of Song,” which gets a dramatic arrangement from producer Ethan Johns that contrasts Cohen’s own somewhat playful original. Jones leans into the song’s theme of mortality with pathos and grace, his muscular voice largely held in check and yet managing to throw a spotlight on a tender melody in the process. This is a master interpreter at work on material that bends to his will.
5. “So Long, Marianne” by First Aid Kit and members of the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Stockholm (2020)
This version of the song comes from a live tribute that First Aid Kit’s Klara and Johanna Soderberg put together in 2017 (eventually released as the album Who by Fire in 2020) just months after Cohen’s death, partly as a way for the pair to process their grief. They were joined by members of the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Stockholm throughout the evening, with all coming together for a show-closing rendition of “So Long, Marianne,” Cohen’s famous homage/farewell to his muse Marianne Ihlen.
Each member of the troupe performs a verse, before everybody on stage joins together in the refrains. We would recommend you seeking out the entire double album, because this song works beautifully as a summation of everything that came before it on that stage. Or you can simply sample this individual song, with all those voices belting up to the heavens so that Cohen could hopefully hear how much his music meant to them.
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