Ben Folds Five is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Ben Folds Five, released on July 25, 1995. A non-traditional rock album, it featured a sound that excluded lead guitars completely. The album was released on the small independent label Passenger Records, owned by Caroline Records, a subsidiary of Virgin/EMI. Ben Folds Five received positive reviews, and spawned five singles. Although it failed to chart, it sparked a bidding war that was eventually won by Sony Music. Several live versions of songs originally released on Ben Folds Five reappeared later as b-sides or on compilations. In September 2026, a 30th anniversary edition of the album was released including a bonus disc, Shelved First Attempt, featuring the band's original demo recording of the album with an alternate track listing. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Fol...) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)