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Adam Schlesinger, an acclaimed singer-songwriter for the bands Fountains of Wayne and Ivy who had an award-triumphing second career writing songs for movie, theater and tv, died on Wednesday in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He turned into 52.
The cause changed into complications of the coronavirus, his family said.
In Fountains of Wayne, which became began in 1995, Mr. Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood perfected a novelistic shape of hummable pop-rock in a style derived from the Kinks and from Nineteen Seventies companies like Big Star and the Cars.
They chose northern New Jersey and boroughs outside Manhattan as thematic territory, chronicling the lives of suburban mall shoppers, Generation X slackers and down-marketplace cowl bands in songs like “Hackensack” and “Red Dragon Tattoo.”
Adored with the aid of critics, Fountains of Wayne — in which Mr. Schlesinger performed bass and Mr. Collingwood played guitar and sang lead vocals — became a cult favorite but had modest record income. Its most famous second came in 2003 with “Stacy’s Mom,” a winking novelty music approximately a teenage boy infatuated with a friend’s mother. With a racy video offering the stick insect Rachel Hunter, the track made it to No. 21 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
Almost from the begin of his profession, Mr. Schlesinger located fulfillment in other mediums. He wrote the Beatles-esque subject matter song to “That Thing You Do!,” a 1996 film directed through Tom Hanks about an also-ran Nineteen Sixties rock band; like the best Fountains of Wayne songs, “That Thing You Do!” had an right away catchy melody, a twisting chord progression and masses of wordplay.
The movie brought Mr. Schlesinger nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. He additionally gained 3 Emmys, consisting of one final year for his songs at the 2010s TV show “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” which frequently threaded campy, Broadway-style numbers into its plot.
As a journeyman songwriter, he also wrote jingles for the Maryland State Lottery and Gillette.
Mr. Schlesinger acquired Grammy nominations with Fountains of Wayne, however his sole trophy turned into for his paintings with David Javerbaum — another frequent collaborator — on Stephen Colbert’s “A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!,” which took first-rate comedy album in 2010.