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Song for the Dumped – European CD single

664480 1 – June 1997

The blog is back! My Ben Folds Five collection has grown in the last year, so let’s have a rustle round the box and see what we find.

We’ll kick things off with this unassuming release, a European CD single for ‘Song for the Dumped’. Hailing back to May / June 1997, this CD was the third European single released off the back of the album ‘Whatever and Ever Amen’:

  1. Battle of Who Could Care Less (February 1997)
  2. Kate (May 1997)
  3. Song for the Dumped (June 1997)

Looking back at single releases from this time, you can’t help but feel a little sorry for our European cousins.

Whereas the UK, Australia and Japan received more plentiful releases with lots of additional content, Europe was only given three singles within a very short period of time. The European singles were also very light on B-sides. Also, no Brick!

Take this release for example, it features the album mix of ‘Song for the Dumped’ (great!) and the demo of ‘Bad Idea’. Total running time, only just over five minutes.

To add a little more misery into the mix, the previously released single ‘Kate’ contained only one B-side. You guessed it, the demo of ‘Bad Idea’. They got the same track twice! This also happened in 1996 with the European singles for ‘Philosophy’ and ‘Uncle Walter’, same B-sides on both releases.

Compare this with the Japanese or Australian maxi-singles from this era that contained three or four live tracks and unused studio material.

So we feel you Europe. In an age before music was shared widely online, you were starved of additional Ben Folds Five content. You probably had to rely on expensive import singles if you were so inclined.

Interesting tidbits

  • This release borrows artwork from the UK single releases of ‘Battle of Who Could Care Less’ which came earlier in the year. The pink lattice CD art and smokey brown inlay card with Polaroid photos of the band.
  • The CD comes in a cardboard sleeve, very typical for European singles around this time. The cardboard sleeve version of ‘Kate’ is a bit of a holy grail for me, so if you have it let me know!
    The B-side demo of ‘Bad Idea’ will already be very familiar to Ben Folds Five fans as it later resurfaced on the compilation album ‘Naked Baby Photos’. The original but more obscure version of the track can be found on ‘The Truth About Cats and Dogs’ soundtrack.

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