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Battle Of Who Could Care Less – UK CD single #2

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This is a very nostalgic release for me, as I actually remember buying this single (and it’s sister CD) when it came out in February 1997.

At that time, it had been about six months since I had heard any new Ben Folds Five content and so I was chomping at the bit. However, UK single releases often came in two separate parts in the mid to late 1990s, so I remember wincing as I shelled out £1.99 for this release and another £1.99 for the second part. I was so starved of content at that point, I was willing to pay extra to get all of the B-sides!

Background

To put this release in context, it was released in the UK in February 1997 as part of a two part set. It was the first ‘Whatever and Ever Amen’ content to be officially released in this country, and proceeded the album launch by about a month.

In a previous blog, I’ve provided a more detailed overview of the huge Sony promotional campaign to launch ‘Whatever and Ever Amen’ on the back of ‘Battle for Who Could Care Less’ single release. I won’t regurgitate the same content, but you can read about the international single release here:

In the blog posts above, I discuss how Sony had a limited number of options when it came to B-side content for the ‘Battle for Who Could Care Less’ singles. In the UK we got all of them, albeit split over two releases.

Assuming we’re all familiar with the album version of ‘Battle for Who Could Care Less’, let’s take a closer look at one of the B-sides on this release.

Hava Nagila

Ben Folds Five’s playful rendition of ‘Hava Nagila’ appeared on this UK release and also the on the Australian Maxi CD single. It also cropped up again in 2011 as part of the Ben Folds ‘Fifty-Five Vault’ digital only release. Finally, the same recording showed up again in 2018 as part of the “Brick” The Songs Of Ben Folds 1994-2012 CD box set.

But what else do we know? The live track was recorded at the Marx Music Club, Hamburg, Germany on 5th November 1996. The whole concert was recorded and broadcast to German audiences by Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) (North German Broadcasting).

Thankfully, a partial recording of this broadcast was made and eventually uploaded to YouTube. Rather mysteriously ‘Hava Nagila’ is missing from the recording, so we have to assume that it happened before or after the 50 minutes worth of material. I’ll embed the broadcast recording below, many thanks to the original taper and YouTuber CPSCPS for uploading this!

If you take a look at the band’s movements around this time, you’ll see that this European tour took place after the main recording sessions for ‘Whatever and Ever Amen’, but before the release of the album. Recordings from this stint in Europe were then used as the B-sides for the single release of ‘Battle of Who Could Care Less’.

Interesting tidbits

  • The first release from ‘Whatever and Ever Amen’ made it clear that the homemade ‘look and feel’ of the self titled album was carrying over into the new album. The familiar Ben handwriting and Ben Folds Five logo were all present and correct.
  • The layout and photographic assets on the cover of this release were reused a number of times in February 1997. They also appeared on the UK vinyl single, the accompanying UK CD single, US promo and Australian Maxi CD single. A simplified aesthetic was also used on the UK promo CD.
  • Interestingly, this release is the only one to use the lighter, wood texture for the background.
  • The approach of using band photographs against a patterned background also set the tone for the upcoming ‘Whatever and Ever Amen’ album artwork.
  • The track ‘For Those of Ya’ll That Wear Fanny Packs’ made it’s debut on this release (along with the Australian Maxi CD single). It would be released more widely a year later on ‘Naked Baby Photos’. Mark John Painter, who arranged the strings for the album receives a small credit on this track for ‘Buzz and monitor’. Was he present for the recording, or was this just an in-joke?
  • The checked pattern on the CD itself was also replicated across the other commercially available singles for ‘Battle’, albeit with a different colour pattern. This was also our first look at the ‘Whatever’ hand shape illustration that would feature in the album artwork.
  • My copy of this release also comes with a postcard that could be sent off to find out more information about the band. I was in attendance at the Shepherds Bush Empire gig that is promoted on this postcard. This must have been how I found out about the gig! I wonder if anyone is still home?