Adam Schlesinger, Fountains of Wayne, dies at 52
ADAM Schlesinger, the prolific singer-songwriter and co-founder of rock band Fountains of Wayne, died Tuesday at age 52, according to multiple reports.
On Tuesday, his family confirmed that he had been hospitalised for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and was on a ventilator. His attorney told Billboard that he had been in the hospital for a week.
A New York City native, Schlesinger racked up many accolades for his music over the years, including Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for writing the title track to the 1997 comedy ‘That Thing You Do!’ The song was chosen out of 300 other submissions when the movie’s writer and director, Tom Hanks, put out a call for a ‘Beatles-esque’ track that could carry the film. Fountains of Wayne’s biggest hit, the tongue-in-cheek ‘Stacy’s Mom,’ earned a Grammy nomination in 2003 for duo/ group pop vocal and helped land the band in the best-new-artist category. He started the band in the mid-90s with his college friend Chris Collingwood and became critical favorites.
Schlesinger would go on to win a Grammy for best comedy album in 2009 for his work on Stephen Colbert’s ‘A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!’
Over the past several years, he became a fan-favorite writer on CW musical dramedy ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ and won the Emmy last year for original music and lyrics for the song ‘Antidepressants Are So Not a Big Deal.’ A Tony nominee for the 2007 musical ‘Cry-Baby,’ he was also well-known for his work in the Broadway world, and previously won two Emmys for the opening and closing numbers of the Tonys broadcast. (‘It’s Not Just For Gays Anymore’ in 2012 and ‘If I Had Time’ in 2013.) — The Washington Post