The Essential Leonard Cohen is a career-spanning collection of Leonard Cohen songs released in 2002. It is part of Sony's The Essential series. The songs are arranged in chronological order; all studio albums released before 2002 are represented, except the 1977 album Death of a Ladies' Man. All tracks were digitally remastered by Leonard Cohen and Bob Ludwig. All songs on the compilation were chosen by Cohen himself. The album was re-released in August 2008 with an extra disc of previously not included tracks (presented as the selection of "fans' favorite" songs).

Track listing

Disc one

Notes indent=1| Tracks 1–5 are from Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967) Tracks 6–7 are from Songs from a Room (1969) Track 8 is from Songs of Love and Hate (1971) Tracks 9–11 are from New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974) Track 12 is from Recent Songs (1979) Tracks 13–15 are from Various Positions (1984) Tracks 16–18 are from I'm Your Man (1988)

Disc two

Notes indent=1| Tracks 1–3 are from I'm Your Man (1988) Track 4 is from Cohen Live (1994) Tracks 5–9 are from The Future (1992) Tracks 10–13 are from Ten New Songs (2001)

Disc three (The Essential 3.0 re-release)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications