Adam Schlesinger, RIP
If you ever come back to Hackensack…
Adam Schlesinger passed away from coronavirus-related issues, and I’m shook.
You may not know the name, but you know the songs. So many perfect pop songs were written by the co-founder of Fountains of Wayne. Sure, you know “Stacy’s Mom,” but that isn’t even the best song on that album1.
Spenser Kornhaber, writing in The Atlantic, outlined just a few of his credits.
Schlesinger had other smashes, and many were just as good as the real thing. The 1996 Tom Hanks film That Thing You Do! portrayed a band rocketing to fame on the strength of one irresistible tune, which Schlesinger wrote for the movie. He created the songs for the 2007 Hugh Grant rom-com, Music and Lyrics, about a middle-aged pop star trying to revive his career. In the 2010s TV comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, characters regularly belted Schlesinger’s madcap words to audiences that often existed only in those characters’ heads.
My favorite songs of his are on the Tinted Windows album.
Stay inside, people. Stay safe.
It’s “Little Red Light”↩︎