Posted on 04/01/2020 4:09:40 PM PDT by Borges
Adam Schlesinger, a musician and songwriter highly regarded for his work as a member of Fountains of Wayne and an Emmy-winning songwriter for TV’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” has died as a result of coronavirus complications, Variety has confirmed. He was 52.
Schlesinger passed away Wednesday morning. He was divorced and is survived by two daughters.
Schlesinger had previously been reported Tuesday morning as “very sick and heavily sedated” by his attorney of 25 years, Josh Grier. Schlesinger had been in an upstate New York hospital for more than a week at that time, Grier said.
An EGOT contender, Schlesinger has been nominated for Oscars, Tonys, Grammys and Emmys and won the latter two awards. At the 2018 Emmys, he was up for two trophies for his “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” work and picked up one, winning in the outstanding original music and lyrics category for the song “Antidepressants Are So Not A Big Deal” (shared with the show’s star, Rachel Bloom, and Jack Dolgen). He was a 10-time Emmy nominee in all, five of those for “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” for which he served as executive music producer. Five more nominations came for his contributions to the Tony Awards, “Sesame Street” and a Stephen Colbert Christmas special.
His Oscar nomination in 1997 was for co-writing the theme song for the Tom Hanks-directed film “That Thing You Do!,” one of his first successful forays outside the realm of his own music-making with Fountains of Wayne. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe at that time.
Fountains of Wayne, the band he co-founded with Chris Collingwood, earned two Grammy nominations in 2003, for best new artist (many years after the band’s actual recording debut) and for best pop performance by a group for the Top 40 single “Stacy’s Mom,” a cheeky MTV staple that became the band’s biggest hit. His lone Grammy win, though, came for best comedy album for his work on “A Stephen Colbert Christmas.”
His two Tony nominations were both for the musical “Cry-Baby,” an adaptation of the John Waters film, in 2008. He had recently collaborated with Sarah Silverman on his first full stage score since then, for an off-Broadway musical, “The Bedwetter,” which had been scheduled to open at the Atlantic Theater Company this spring. Tony winners Linda Lavin and Stephanie J. Block had been set to star in the limited-run production from April 25 through May 20 before pandemic-related shutdowns put a halt to New York theater efforts.
Although he was a member of the bands Tinted Windows and Ivy, he is best regarded among rock fans for the five albums he recorded with Fountains of Wayne between 1996 and 2011. Dissent between him and Collingwood during the recording of “Sky Full of Holes” led to that being their apparent swan song, although reviews for that final album were, typically for the group, raves. “Welcome Interstate Managers” in 2003, the album that generated “Stacey’s Mom” (and its Rachel Hunter-starring video), remained their most popular work.
Sorry he died, but I could care less who he is or why he
is more special than others.
Drug addict no one heard of dies.
Sad.
Just another non-essential worker.
Never heard of him, but love “That Thing You Do” (song and movie). RIP.
A few days ago I looked him up on YouTube and saw there were over 116 million views on his big hit song (which I had also never heard of), “Stacy’s Mom.”
Never heard of him.
You may not have but he is a very well known American musician of his generation.
Sarah Silverman.
Stephen Colbert.
His career took a downturn there near the end
one of my favorite
Thanks for the mention Borges.
Me neither.
For a quick hypothesis test, per this link, at least one of the top 35 grossing actors of all time has COVID-19 (Tom Hanks).
If the nation had that infection rate (technically, its higher than 1/35= 2.86% because of dead actors), there would be 9.4MM with Coronavirus.
Now, one is a very small sample size. And yet, something seems off...
I hear she had it going on.
Fountains of Wayne had a nice upbeat sound. I liked their song “Mexican Wine” and there was a beach video out a million years ago “The Summer Place” which told a good story.
RIP Adam Schlesinger, the biz wasn’t good to you. You were much better than that.
“Never heard of him, but love “That Thing You Do” (song and movie). RIP”
Yep, in my top 10 for favorite movies. Great music, all original to the movie, no covers.
Oprah Soup with a dash of CoVFeFe.
Rest in peace, Adam.
I remember the songs “Stacy’s Mom” and “That Thing You Do.”
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