From Fountains of Wayne to 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend', how Emmy-Grammy winner Adam Schlesinger impacted pop culture
The EGOT-nominated artist Adam Schlesinger died at a hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York, on April 1 due to complications related to the coronavirus. The 52-year-old had been struggling to breathe after contracting COVID-19 and been put on ventilator support in the last two weeks leading up to his death.
Best known as the bassist and founding member of the bands Fountains of Wayne, Ivy, and Tinted Windows, Schlesinger had won three Emmys, a Grammy, and an ASCAP Pop Music Award during his distinguished career. But as an EGOT nominee, he had made outstanding contributions to all four major categories in the art world: Television, music, film and theater. The singer-songwriter had also been nominated for a Golden Globe, Oscar and Tony awards in the previous decades.
His primary band, Fountains of Wayne, had found considerable success with fans and critics alike for their brand of radio-friendly pop-rock, modeled after classic bands like The Cars and The Kinks. They reached their peak of commercial stardom in the United States after their catchy 2003 single, 'Stacy's Mom' hit No. 21 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and was nominated for a Grammy award. The light-hearted song's premise was about a boy who was in love with the mother of the titular character, Stacy. The song's official music video was especially memorable for spoofing 'Fast Times At Ridgemount High', in which the supermodel Rachel Hunter recreated the iconic scene where Phoebe Cates seductively emerges from the pool.
Fountains of Wayne would go on to release five studio albums, with the last one, 'Sky Full of Holes', dropping in 2011. Schlesinger eventually won a Grammy in 2010 for his collaboration with David Javerbaum on 'A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!'
Adam Schlesinger was also extremely successful in the movie soundtrack industry. In 1996, he wrote the infectious title song for 'That Thing You Do', a music vehicle starring and directed by Tom Hanks that followed the rise of a fictional 1960s band The Wonders, who were loosely styled after The Beatles. Schlesinger was later nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe that year for his contributions to the movie's soundtrack. Besides this film, he also contributed to the OSTs of popular movies like 'Ice Age: Continental Drift', 'Music and Lyrics', 'Shallow Hal', 'There's Something About Mary', 'Me, Myself & Irene', 'Josie and the Pussycats' & 'Scary Movie'.
In television, Schlesinger wrote songs for the Emmy & Tony Awards ceremonies during 2011-2013. He also won three Emmys, including a win in 2019 for his music production role on the CW comedy 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend', which often incorporated musical numbers into its storylines. His close friend, Aline Brosh McKenna, who worked with him on 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' posted on Twitter after his passing that he was "so funny, so kind, so opinionated, so clever, so passionate... Miss you already, Adam." The actress Fran Drescher also revealed that Schlesinger had been writing music for a musical. "We will miss you," she wrote on Instagram.
In the theater, Schlesinger worked with frequent collaborator David Javerbaum for the 2008 Broadway musical 'Cry-Baby', based on the cult John Waters film in 1990. That earned them a Tony nomination in 2008, and the duo teamed up again in 2015 for the play 'An Act of God'. Of late, Schlesinger had been collaborating on music and lyrics with the comedian Sarah Silverman for a theater adaptation of her book, 'The Bedwetter', which was scheduled to start showing off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company, but was then delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. For all his contributions to the world of entertainment and arts, the talented artist will be sorely missed.