that thing you do!
VARIOUS / SONY BMG MUSIC
Adam Schlesinger was no mere one-hit wonder. Before his tragic death from Covid-19 in 2020, Schlesinger was half of the songwriting team in Fountains Of Wayne, the US band who minted wry, poignant power-pop perfection from the small lives of everyday people. Elsewhere, he wrote songs for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Music And Lyrics and Josie And The Pussycats, among others, always braiding pinpoint pop craftsmanship with human detail.
He did, however, write a one-hit whopper for The Wonders (aka The Oneders), the fictional ’60s band in Tom Hanks’ winning directorial debut, That Thing You Do! (1996). Inspired by British Invasion bands (The Beatles, mostly), Hanks’ film faced a hurdle. It needed an original song that sounded like it made stars of The Wonders, and it couldn’t grate with repetition. One misfire and his whole film would implode.
Thanks to Schlesinger, the centre holds. Schlesinger had signed a publishing deal with Polydor when label friends suggested he answer the call for submissions. With The Candy Butchers’ Mike Viola on vocals, Schlesinger’s bid
leapt out from the 300-plus entrants for its period-perfect hit of pep and poignancy, a combination precisionfocused in the shift from major to minor chords for the lyric, “Breaking my heart…” Schlesinger was a student of pop who knew how to make it sing, and ‘That Thing You Do’ is a nimble nugget of nifty proof.
Elsewhere on the album, back-up artists show the value of honouring the era without modern embellishments. Potsdam power-pop specialists Gigolo Aunts ape Lennon/McCartney for ‘Little Wild One’. ‘Dance With Me Tonight’ twists and shouts appealingly, while ‘All My Only Dreams’ is a prom-night keeper. Outside of The Wonders, other fictional bands square up. The Chantrellines’ ‘Hold My Hand, Hold My Heart’ echoes Phil Spector-produced girl-pop; The Saturn 5’s ‘Voyage Around The Moon’ resembles a surf-rock deep cut waiting for a Tarantino film; The Vicksburgs’ ‘Drive Faster’ is a garageband treasure; and Diane Dane’s ‘My World Is Over’ evokes Bacharach and David’s honeyed lounge-pop.
But the album closer is a revisit of Schlesinger’s song, as it should be. On release, it hit the Billboard Top 100 and banked an Oscar nomination. After Schlesinger’s passing, Hanks tweeted that without the song, “There would be no Playtone,” the real production outfit named after the film’s fictional record company. Every song in That Thing You Do! pens a heartfelt love letter to its era. But Schlesinger’s sweet, buoyant bop is the beating heart of Hanks’ charmingly innocent tribute to pop’s birth pangs. Kevin Harley