Fountains of Wayne co-founder Adam Schlesinger passed away last week due to coronavirus complications. With Schlesinger’s passing, co-founder Chris Collingwood talked with Rolling Stone regarding Schlesinger’s life and legacy.
Schlesinger’s legacy includes the 2003 hit “Stacy’s Mom,” one of the widely popular tracks from their album Welcome Interstate Managers. “Stacy’s Mom” was seen as a novelty track. Collingwood doesn’t believe that it does Schlesinger’s writing ability justice. Collingwood assisted in writing many of Fountains of Wayne’s biggest hits and even attempted to convince his bandmates not to release “Stacy’s Mom.”
Collingwood stated that ” [Schlesinger] was too good a writer to have that be his calling card, and the success of a novelty song means that’s just what you are to the public, from that moment on forever.” Collingwood went on to say that he was “reluctant to [record] it at all, but in the moment you don’t want to kill the session by not being a good sport.”
The novelty of “Stacy’s Mom” remains, but Schlesinger had many other accomplishments in his life, including winning three Emmy Awards for the television show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Additionally, Schlesinger was a Golden Globe and Academy Award nominee.
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