I have always been fascinated by acoustic movements of music. There is just something very charming about plugging off your equipment, sitting in the dark and privately singing from the soul.
#4 on the 5 cover songs I’ll bring with me if I’m stranded on a desert island
Iron & Wine – Such Great Heights
Sam Beam, better known as his stage name Iron & Wine is a very intimate musician. His husky, whispy vocals often accompanied by a slide guitar always tugs strings at my heart. I imagine going to Paris, sitting in a park bench in the middle of the night, the dark sky illuminated by faraway lights of the Eiffel Tower and Sam, standing meters aparts, busking away as tenderly as the first day of a brand new romance.
As you may know, Such Great Heights is an electronic song originally performed by The Postal Service. Iron & Wine took it down, stripped it off it’s complex rhythm and perform it solo with a lone guitar.
I am completely, utterly amazed by how he still manages to retain the beauty of a song even after taking out all the bravado and grandiose arrangement it originally had.
Iron & Wine’s Such Great Heights ranks at #4 on my Top 5 Desert Island Cover of all time.
Download the song HERE.

July 16, 2008 at 11:01 am |
joe anderson’s “hey jude”.
July 17, 2008 at 4:28 am |
woah, this is such a great cover! (:
July 18, 2008 at 2:26 am |
i like what iron and wine did, but i think i prefer ben folds’ version.
July 18, 2008 at 12:15 pm |
i prefer the original version by postal service. but i have to give credit to ben fold for bringing something out of the song with his piano skills.