"Alice Childress" by Ben Folds Five (from the album Ben Folds Five, 1995)
An enigmatic melodic number by the piano-based trio that played, by their own description, "punk rock for sissies." I was perplexed by the meaning of this song for ages, given that it namechecks (or seems to namecheck) a famous African American playwright in the title and chorus. Turns out though, that the lyrics were contributed by Folds's ex-wife, Anna Goldman, who wrote the words for a hospital patient she knew. (This info, unverified, comes from The Ben Folds Knowledge Base.) Nevertheless, it's painfully sweet in its melody, and the piano chart is handsome.
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