Most love songs make at least some attempt to mask or universalize their muse, but not Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne.”
Even the name of the love interest is literal: Leonard Cohen was deeply–but platonically–in love with Suzanne Verdal, who was married at the time to Cohen’s friend Armand Vaillancourt.
The song’s detail and imagery are all literal, lifted from the time Cohen and Verdal spent together. In (much) later interviews, Verdal freely admitted to the deep but unconsummated love they shared.
The remarkably and vividly romantic “Suzanne” catapulted Cohen to stardom (although it never charted until after Cohen’s death in 2016), and while Cohen and Verdal would often encounter each other in later years, they ultimately drifted apart rather than closer together.
Bruce Springsteen covered “Suzanne” just once, with the Castiles, the same year that Cohen released his debut single.
This performance is from the Castiles’ show at The Left Foot in Freehold on September 16, 1967:
The Castiles’ take is faster, more percussive and guitar-forward, but it’s an otherwise faithful rendition of Cohen’s original.
Despite its lack of chart success, “Suzanne” reach its audience and inspired many covers over the years. In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked it #284 on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, a distinction Cohen unfortunately never lived to see.
Suzanne
First performed: September 16, 1967 (Freehold, NJ)
Last performed: September 16, 1967 (Freehold, NJ)
© March 25, 2018 / December 7 2025
