Rockin' the Suburbs

Rockin' the Suburbs is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Ben Folds released on September 11, 2001, the same day as the September 11 attacks. His first solo album after leaving his band Ben Folds Five, Rockin' the Suburbs was recorded in Adelaide, Australia, where Folds was living at the time.

"Rockin' the Suburbs" is Folds' only single to make Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart, peaking there at number 28. The album peaked at number 42 on the Billboard 200 chart, and at number 11 on the Top Internet Albums chart. A remake of the title track featuring William Shatner appeared in the soundtrack for the 2006 film Over the Hedge, which stars Shatner as an opossum named Ozzie.

Track notes
According to Folds, "Not the Same" is based on a true story of a person he knew who, under the influence of LSD, climbed a tree at a party hosted by Darren Jessee (not Robert Sledge, as the song states), stayed in the tree overnight, and when he came down the next morning was a born-again Christian. Folds used Sledge's name instead of Jessee's in the lyrics because he thought "it sounded better".

Folds performed "Gone" with Street Corner Symphony on the finale of Season 2 of The Sing-Off and performed "Not the Same" with the Dartmouth Aires on the finale of Season 3.

Personnel
Credits adapted from album’s liner notes.


 * Ben Folds – piano, vocals, keyboards, guitars, bass guitar, drums
 * Richard Fortus – additional guitar (tracks 3, 10)
 * Larry Corbett – cello (track 5)
 * DJ Swamp – additional beats (track 10)
 * Frally Hynes – additional vocals (track 4)
 * John McCrea – additional vocals (track 5)
 * John Mark Painter – strings conductor and arranger

Production

 * Producers: Ben Folds, Ben Grosse
 * Recording: Ben Grosse, Andrew R. Wallace
 * Mixing: Ben Grosse
 * Additional Engineers: Blumpy, Cameron Webb
 * Assistant Engineers: Rick Behrens, Aaron Lepley, Chuck Bailey, Justin Pynes, Uly Noriega, Dale Lawtone
 * Programming: Ben Grosse, Andrew R. Wallace, Blumpy, Cameron Webb, John Vitale
 * Programming Engineer: Andrew R. Wallace
 * Mastering: Ted Jensen