Adam Schlesinger was the bassist and one of the principal songwriters for Fountains of Wayne, who had their biggest hit with 2003’s “Stacy’s Mom.”
- Died: April 1, 2020 (Who else died on April 1?)
- Details of death: Died of complications of COVID-19 at the age of 52.
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Fountains of Wayne
Schlesinger was a founding member of Fountains of Wayne, founded in 1995. He and lead singer Chris Collingwood shared songwriting duties, each writing their own songs but typically crediting their compositions to the Schlesinger-Collingwood writing team. Their 1996 debut album included the song “That Thing You Do,” written by Schlesinger and used in the 1996 movie “That Thing You Do!” It was nominated for Best Original Song at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. The band’s third album, “Welcome Interstate Managers,” yielded the mainstream hit “Stacy’s Mom,” the band’s highest charting song and a Grammy nominee for Best Vocal Pop Performance.
Other work
Schlesinger was also a founding member of Ivy and Tinted Windows. Ivy’s songs were featured in movies including “There’s Something About Mary” and “Orange County. Schlesinger was a songwriter for the soundtrack to the 2001 movie “Josie and the Pussycats,” and he was Tony nominated for co-writing the music for the Broadway musical “Cry-Baby.” He was Emmy nominated for songs written for TV shows including “Sesame Street” and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” Schlesinger was also a producer for bands including They Might Be Giants, Verve Pipe, and Robert Plant.
Schlesinger on songwriting
“If you set out to write something important it usually ends up being terrible. It’s usually the ones that kind of fall out of you, at least for me, the ones where you don’t have great ambitions of creating some wonderful piece of art, and you’re just having fun and it’s something quick and easy, those are the ones that usually stick with people and mean something to them.” —from a 2010 interview with Pop Matters
What people said about him
Full obituary: The New York Times
