"Where's Summer B.?" | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Ben Folds Five | ||||||||||
from the album Ben Folds Five | ||||||||||
Released | August 8, 1995 (album) 1996 (single) |
|||||||||
Recorded | Wave Castle, Chapel Hill, North Carolina February 1995 |
|||||||||
Genre | Alternative rock | |||||||||
Length | 4:07 | |||||||||
Label |
Passenger/Caroline Vital Distribution (single) |
|||||||||
Writer(s) |
Benjamin Scott Folds Darren Michael Jessee |
|||||||||
Producer(s) | Caleb Southern | |||||||||
Ben Folds Five singles chronology | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
"Where's Summer B.?" is a song from Ben Folds Five's 1995 first album, Ben Folds Five. It was written by Ben Folds and Darren Jessee. The song, though up-tempo, deals with the disappointment of returning to a hometown after being away and seeing things much the same as before.
The song is told from the point of view of a friend of Summer B.'s. Summer has returned to her hometown after being away for a significant period of time. The friend explains the various mundane events that have occurred in Summer's absence.
The title character of Summer B. is a reference to Summer Burke, a friend of the band. Burke is credited with designing the band's distinctive stick drawing piano logo. Other real-life friends of Jessee's are mentioned throughout the song.
A censored version of the song appears with the original album recording on the Summer EP, a four song CD released by Passenger/Caroline to promote the band to radio programmers. The censored (or "clean") version fades out the word "shit".
The song was released as a CD single on June 7, 1996, in the United Kingdom, distributed by Vital Distribution for Passenger/Caroline. The other tracks of the single were recorded live on August 12, 1995, at Ziggy's in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, by John Alagia and Doug Derryberry. These tracks were mixed at Rutabaga Studios in Arlington, Virginia, in May, 1996. "Tom and Mary" also appears on the Japanese release of Ben Folds Five.
The song was released as a 7" vinyl single on June 7, 1996, in the United Kingdom, distributed by Vital Distribution for Passenger/Caroline. The track on the "B" side, "Tom and Mary", was recorded live on August 12, 1995, at Ziggy's in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, by John Alagia and Doug Derryberry. "Tom and Mary" was mixed at Rutabaga Studios in Arlington, Virginia, in May, 1996, and also appears on the Japanese release of Ben Folds Five.