Fairly articulate mammal

Thursday, April 2, 2020

RIP Adam Schlesinger

I bought you
A light blue
T-shirt last night
From some band
I couldn’t stand
But their logo was alright...

That’s a lyric from Adam Schlesinger, who passed away at 52 yesterday from COVID-19.

You may not know his name, but you probably know his music. His band Fountains of Wayne had a huge hit with “Stacy’s Mom,” as well as a whole catalogue of smart, funny, cool pop songs.

He also wrote songs for That thing You Do (remember that Tom Hanks  movie about a one-hit wonder pop band?). And he won Emmy awards for his songwriting on the tv show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

And it would be hard to overpraise his contributions to the Hugh Grant/Drew Barrymore romcom Music and Lyric. The core song of that movie, “Way Back into Love” is fantastic, both on its own and as a way of reinforcing the theme and advancing the movie’s plot.

But this is my favorite of his. Adam’s the bass player and backing singer, and these guys were a really great songwriting team. Fuck.

RIP, Adam.

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