of Samson and traitorous Delilah from the Book of Judges ("she cut your hair") as well as the adulterous King David and Bathsheba ("you saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you"). Asked about the phenomenal success of the song in 2009, Cohen told the CBC Radio show Q: I was happy that the song was being used. Of course, there was certain ironic and amusing sidebars because the record that it came from, which was called Various Positions, that record Sony wouldn't put out. They didn't think it was good enough ... So there was a mild sense of revenge that arose in my heart. I was happy about it but it's ... I was just reading a review of a movie called Watchmen that uses it, and the reviewer said, "Can we please have a moratorium on 'Hallelujah' in movies and television shows?" And I kind of feel the same way ... I think the song came out in '83 or '84, and the only person who seemed to recognize the song was Dylan. He was doing it in concert. Nobody else recognized the song till quite a long time later, I think. Although it featured a more contemporary sound for its time compared with the singer's previous LPs, Columbia did not think it was commercially viable and refused to release Various Positions in the US. Walter Yetnikoff, president of the company, called him to his office in New York City and said, "Look, Leonard; we know you're great, but we don't know if you're any good." Various Positions was eventually picked up by the independent label Passport Records, and the album was finally included in the catalogue in 1990 when Columbia released the Cohen discography on compact disc. A remastered CD was issued in 1995. Reception Various Positions made the top ten in Spain, Portugal, and Scandinavia, and fared modestly well in the United Kingdom. In the original 1985 Rolling Stone review, Don Shewey complimented Lissauer's "lucid and beautiful production" and observed, "Many of the new songs have a surprising country & western flavor, which comes partly from the use of pedal steel guitars and partly from the simple song structures. 'Heart with No Companion' wouldn't sound out of place on a Johnny Cash record." Jason Ankeny of AllMusic calls it "a stunning return to form – Cohen's strongest work since New