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Listen to the lyrics—it’s a beautiful song. No wonder there are so many covers.

First, the original from The Postal Service:

Iron & Wine’s cover from the Garden State soundtrack:

Another cover by Ben Folds:

The Ben Gibbard (singer for The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie) acoustic version:

Quartet version:

Lots of choirs like this song:

Comments

1. Idaho Dad on 2009-01-12 22:54:20 wrote: I agree, it is a beautiful song. One of those rare tunes that just can’t be covered poorly. It’s one of very few songs from the past decade that I consider to be perfect.

2. Dave on 2009-01-13 09:04:10 wrote: I first heard the Iron & Wine version, and couldn’t figure out why I disliked the Ben Folds version until I heard the original, and realized how different (and IMO better) the I&W version is.

3. John on 2009-01-13 09:55:49 wrote: I first heard The Postal Service version and I also dislike the Ben Folds cover. Not his best work.

4. Lady in a Smalltown on 2009-01-13 14:33:30 wrote: I heard the Iron & Wine version first and loved it and listened to it for months before finding The Postal Service original. I have to say, I usually don’t like it when I hear a different version of a song than I am used to (be that original first or cover), but I LOVE both versions of this song. I listened to parts of all the videos you posted and the only others that I liked were the string quartet and Ben Gibbard acoustic. I heard it first (I&W version) on an M&M’s commercial.

5. bluefacedpixie » Such Great Heights on 2009-01-15 20:19:46 wrote: […] See more versions of this song here on flagrantdisregard […]