New York City December 1995
Two old friends, Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood, reunite to start a new band.
They made a good freaking team, and were quite the songwriting duo.
They first met ten years prior as freshmen at Williams College in Massachusetts and soon
after that found themselves starting several bands together. Bands with names like Wooly
Mammoth, Are You My Mother? and Three Men When Stood Side by Side Have a Wingspan of
Over 12 Feet. One of their bands, called The Wallflowers, ended up getting a record deal
with a small independent label after they both got out of college and had moved to Boston.
However, they never recorded under that name and eventually sold the rights of the name
to Jakob Dylan’s band The Wallflowers.
In the early 1990s, Schlesinger had seen modest success writing music for TV shows like The
Dana Carvey Show and playing with a band called Ivy. But he never had stopped making songs
with Collingwood, usually under the name Pinwheel. So yeah...returning to New York City and December
of 1995. The two decided to record a demo of songs they had recently been working on,
and that’s when Fountains of Wayne was born.
They named the band after a lawn ornament store in Wayne, New Jersey, which was near
where Scheslinger grew up. They sent the demo to Atlantic Records, and wouldn’t you know
it, Atlantic loved it and quickly signed them. Schlesinger and Collingwood wanted to record
the album as quickly as possible because they both had a habit of overthinking recordings
in the past. The two recorded nearly all of the instrumentation for the debut self-titled
album in one week in April 1996. Schelesinger also produced the album, and even though he
wrote more of the songs, he and Collingwood decided to split the rights for the songs
evenly to keep it simple. Throughout their years collaborating, they
generally wrote their songs separately.
Soon after this, Schleslinger wrote a Merseybeat-style song called “That Thing You Do” for a
new film Tom Hanks was working on. To Schleslinger’s surprise, that song ended up being the main
song featured in the film and a big hit. Heck, the film was even called That Thing You Do!
The success of the soundtrack to the film helped fuel some hype for the release of Fountains
of Wayne’s debut album, which Atlantic released on October 1, 1996. Critics generally praised
the album, and it had some success on alternative radio and MTV. That said, 1996 was the post
grunge era, and the Fountains of Wayne record was pure power pop, more in the same vein
of bands like Big Star and The Kinks. And boy was it catchy, with some of the most original
and memorable melodies ever created. That said, the guitars were turned up loud enough
to fit in, and the self-titled album had modest hits with the songs “Radiation Vibe,”
“Sink to the Bottom,” and “Survival Car.”
Meanwhile Schleslinger and Collingwood had been playing live shows to promote the album,
and recruited Jody Porter, who Schleslinger had previously collaborated with, to join
the band on lead guitar. Brian Young, who had recently stopped playing drums with the
band the Posies, actually approached them and became the new Fountains of Wayne drummer
after auditioning.
In 1997, the band toured with bands like Sloan, the Smashing Pumpkins and the Lemonheads.
On October 6, Atlantic Records released the second album from Schlesinger’s band Ivy
and, while it didn’t get much commercial success, it got a lot of love from critics.
In 1998, Collingwood and Schlesinger wrote some new songs with the intention of telling
a more thematic story for an album. What resulted was the songs that would make up the second
Fountains of Wayne studio album, Utopia Parkway, named after the title track and an actual
road in Queens. It was a concept record that examined modern suburbia. While Schlesinger’s
songs generally stayed more light-hearted, Collingwood’s songs got a bit more serious.
But it was still ridiculously catchy. Utopia Parkway was also the first Fountains of Wayne
album to feature Porter and Young in the recordings.
Atlantic Records released it on April 6, 1999, but didn’t do much to promote it, and therefore
it had even less commercial success than their first album. However, once again critics generally
praised it, and it specifically found more success on college radio. Utopia Parkway had
three singles: “Denise,” “Red Dragon Tattoo,” and “Troubled Times,” but again...the
songs didn’t get much mainstream airplay.
Fountains of Wayne toured throughout the rest of 1999. In 2000, Atlantic dropped the band
from their label, and this really upset Collingwood, in particular. The band decided to take a
break after this. Over the next few years, Schlesinger stayed busy, writing songs for
various films, TV shows, and even other bands and artists. He also released a third album
with Ivy and produced albums for the Verve Pipe, They Might Be Giants, and David Mead.
Meanwhile, Collingwood created a pop-country band called Gay Potatoes and played some solo
shows. Porter made music with his band The Astrojet, and Young made some recordings with
various artists, including Schlesinger’s band Ivy.
By the summer of 2001, the band was back in touch and making new music. Instead of letting
a record label take the lead, they decided to record their third studio album themselves,
with Schlesingler funding most of it. To test the new material, Fountains of Wayne went
on tour in November 2002. After the album was completely finished, S-Curve Records was
like “that’s good stuff” and “can we release it?” The band said “of course.”
S-Curve released Welcome Interstate Managers on June 10, 2003.
It was the most successful Fountains of Wayne album by far. It was one of those rare albums
that critics and music snobs adored, but also found huge mainstream success. At first, Welcome
Interstate Managers just got a lot of college radio airplay. But soon their single “Stacy’s
Mom” took off. The song stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 17 weeks, and was one of
the first songs to reach the number one spot for Itunes’ “Most Downloaded Songs”
list. It also was nominated for a Grammy. The music video, which featured model Rachel
Hunter, was also a big hit. This was all strange for the band, and today they are still considered
by some to be a One Hit Wonder band due to this being their only major hit.
In 2003 and 2004, Fountains of Wayne once again toured all over the place, playing some
of their biggest shows ever. In 2005, the band released Out-of-State Plates, a collection
of B-sides, rarities, and two new songs. Of note, a brilliant cover of Britney Spears’
hit “...Baby One More Time.” That same year, they went on another short tour and
played a set for the PBS show Soundstage.
In 2006, while the band was touring Tokyo, Collingwood had a mental breakdown, and they
had to cancel a few shows while he got treatment. Over the next couple years, Collingwood also
struggled with depression and alcoholism, which is why he ended up having less of a
role on the band’s fourth studio album, Traffic and Weather, which Virgin Records
released on April 3, 2007. The album achieved quite a bit less commercial success than Welcome
Interstate Managers, but critics still generally praised the album. Rolling Stone magazine
included the song “I-95” on its year-end best of list. And one thing was sure by this
point, Fountains of Wayne loved to sing songs about traveling and real places by golly.
Also in 2007, Schlesingler co-wrote songs for a musical adaptation of the John Waters
film Cry-Baby. In 2008, Porter released his debut solo album, Close to the Sun. That same
year, Schlesinger joined a supergroup band named Tinted Windows, which also featured
James Iha from the Smashing Pumpkins, Taylor Hanson of Hanson, and Bun E. Carlos of Cheap
Trick. S-Curve released their self-titled debut album on April 21, 2009. Also in 2009,
Fountains of Wayne released a live concert DVD called No Better Place: Live In Chicago, and played
some acoustic shows of brand new songs.
By that time, Collingwood had cleaned up his act, and had a more active role as the band
recorded their fifth and what would be their final studio album, Sky Full of Holes, which
the independent record label Yep Roc released on July 20, 2011 first in Japan and then later
in Europe and North America. Just like all their other albums, critics generally praised
this album as well,
[music]
but it wasn’t really the type of stuff played on the radio anymore.
Sky Full of Holes also found the band turning down the volume and becoming more chill. Perhaps
those acoustic sets influenced this. Sadly, during the recording of it, Collingwood and
Schlesinger did not get along well, and this is ultimately what led to the end of the band.
Still, Fountains of Wayne played several shows in 2012 and 2013 promoting the album. They
played their last show at First Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 19, 2013.
In the following years, despite many rumours of a reunion, the band never got together again.
That didn’t mean they didn’t stay busy. Brian Young continued to drum for several
bands, and currently is the drummer for The Jesus and Mary Chain. Jody Porter has played
not only guitar, but bass, keyboards, and drums, and sung vocals on many albums, including
with folks like Juliana Hatfield and Albert Hammond Jr. Chris Collingwood started a new
band called Look Park, named after his favorite park in his hometown of Northampton, Massachusetts.
Yep Roc released their self-titled debut album in 2016. Adam Schlesinger probably stayed
busier than them all, continuing to produce records and continuing to write songs for
countless artists and bands. He received several Emmy nominations and two Emmy Awards. He performed
at multiple Tony Awards ceremonies. He continued to make songs for films and TV shows….of
note, he was the executive music producer of the show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
Tragically, on April 1, 2020, Schlesinger died of complications related to COVID-19.
He was 52.
Today, Fountains of Wayne are mostly just known for “Stacey’s Mom.” This is sad
to me, because frankly their entire catalog is brilliant. The songwriting combination
of Schlesinger and Collingwood, in particular was pretty darn special. Fountains of Wayne
may be known to some as a one hit wonder, but all of their songs could have easily been
hits and hopefully more and more folks will realize this in the future.
I know this pandemic is horrible, but I am still in shock that it took one of my songwriting
heroes, Adam Schlesinger. Please stay safe out there. Fountains of Wayne was one of those
bands I listened to over and over and told as many of my friends about because, for some
reason, they just didn’t understand how genius they were like I did. I’ve always
been a sucker for power pop, and “Hey Julie” might just be the most perfect song ever written.
So what’s your favorite Fountains of Wayne song or album? Which band should I do a brief
history of next? Let me know in the comments below, and thanks for watching this dorky
video I made.