Given this historic week, a week in which we also lost the great Leonard Cohen at age 82, this seemed the only possible choice. His "Hallelujah" is a fragile masterpiece that when overproduced can be pushed into cheesiness, so I went looking for the most stripped-down version I could find. This is it:

Cohen reportedly wrote some 80 different verses to the song before paring it down to a relative handful. One of my favorites isn't included in the version above, but it was in Cohen's original.

"I did my best, it wasn't much

I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch

I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool ya

And even though

It all went wrong

I'll stand before the Lord of Song

With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah"

Have a good weekend, everyone.

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Lt. Gov. Burt Jones — pictured at an August rally in Peachtree City that also featured Vice President JD Vance — appears to have scored another legal victory over gubernatorial rival Attorney General Chris Carr in their battle over campaign finance issues. (Arvin Temkar/AJC 2025)

Credit: Arvin Temkar / AJC