Cohen is said to have claimed 150 draft verses, a claim substantiated by his notebooks containing manifold revisions and additions, and by contemporary interviews.[10] In a writing session in New York's Royalton Hotel, Cohen is famously said to have been reduced to sitting on the floor in his underwear, filling notebooks, banging his head on the floor.[8] Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, creators of the 2022 documentary film Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, said that Cohen took about five years to write the song, and reconfigured it numerous times for performances.[11] Unlike some other songs that became anthems, Hallelujah was initially rejected by Columbia records, was ignored after an independent label released it, wasn't famously[9] covered until John Cale's 1991 version, and didn't reach the Billboard charts until Cohen's death in 2016.[12]