Last fall, 27 years after Jeff Buckley died, the singer-songwriter best known for his haunting cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” reached a surprising new chart peak. Propelled mainly by teenage girls using the track as the backdrop for their moody musings, “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over,” a plaintive breakup tune from Buckley’s 1994 studio album, Grace, became the 19th most popular song on the TikTok Billboard top 50. “Ugh the Og yearner ,” reads an appreciative comment on a black-and-white video of Buckley performing the song that has been liked 640,000 times. “Imagine getting a song like this written about you like ,” reads one from another wistful admirer.

To older generations of Buckley fans, these youthful reactions are entirely understandable. “You hear that song, and you feel the most romantic feelings you could feel,” says documentarian Amy Berg, 54, who first had her own moody Buckley moment in the ’90s.

Several years before...