Song of the Day 12/26: Ben Folds Five, “Brick”

Nobody sets a happy story on Dec. 26. So when Ben Folds’ song opens with a timestamp – 6 a.m., day after Christmas – it pretty much guarantees we’re about to hear a sad tale. And we do.

Folds’ autobiographical account of his high school girlfriend’s abortion and its emotional aftermath appeared on his band’s second album, “Whatever and Ever Amen,” in 1997. He caught a lot of flak for it from fans of the Ben Folds Five who thought the trio was selling out by having a single that received lots of airplay and made the Billboard charts.

He’s also gotten grief from people who think he’s callous for calling his girlfriend a brick that’s dragging him down, but the chorus was written by drummer Darren Jessee and added when Folds couldn’t come up with one.

Folds mostly plays piano, but he wrote the song on guitar. He played it that way on a 2003 tour with the Bens, an impromptu group he formed with Ben Kweller and Ben Lee.