Songoftheday 6/12/24 - You know I'm not the little boy that I used to be, I'm all grown up now baby can't you see?
"Stacy's Mom" - Fountains Of Wayne
from the album Welcome Interstate Managers (2003)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #21 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8
Today's song comes from the rock band Fountains Of Wayne, who came together in New York City in the mid-90s when college-mates Adam Schlesinger and Chirs Collingwood reunited and after being signed by Atlantic Records eventually brought in guitarist Josey Parker and drummer Brian Young to make a proper unit. Their band name came from a outdoor statuary shop in the town of Wayne, New Jersey. But before that Adam and Chris (with help from Danny Weinkauf, who was in a pre-FOW band with them called Bellflower) recorded Fountains Of Wayne's eponymous debut, which came out in 1996. The lead single from the record, "Radiation Vibe", which sported a music video with the whole lineup. The lo-fi power-pop single hit #71 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 Airplay radio chart, while peaking at #14 on their Alternative Rock radio list. But the song made an even bigger splash across the Atlantic, where it peaked at #32 on the British Singles chart, with three more tracks from the record making the top-100 in the UK. Schlesinger also had a hand in the soundtrack for the "faux music documentary" That Thing You Do!, of which the title track written by Adam (who sang backup) spent three weeks right below the top-40 on the Hot 100 at #41. At the end of 1997, a holiday one-off from the group, "I Want An Alien For Christmas", made the British top-40 at #36.
In 1999, they returned with a second disc on Atlantic, Utopia Parkway. A chance to expand their vision and sound with Parker and Young in tow, the big single from the record, "Denise", managed to slip on to the Alternative Rock chart at #34, but with diminishing returns, they were dropped by the label. Disheartened, they went their separate ways for a few years before reuniting to record a third album, Welcome Interstate Managers, using money that Schlesinger had accrued from his outside work writing and producing, in order to shop the finished record around to labels. One of their amicable contacts from Atlantic, Steve Yegelwel, was now an executive at S-Curve Records, and signed them up with a distribution deal with Virgin.
The first single from the album was "Stacy's Mom", written by Schlesinger (and credited to the Schlesinger/Collingwood team just like Jagger/Richards and Lennon/McCartney), was inspired by a childhood friend of Adam's who was lusting over his grandmother. Taking some of the ick factor out by putting the object of affection in a somewhat closer age range and singing in the first person as the mom of the girl he's dating (still ick but funny), the song definitely sounds like their heroes the Cars, with a bit of "Buddy Holly"-age Weezer thrown in to the production to make it sound even more fresh than it still does. With a music video features Rachel Hunter (then Mrs. Rod Stewart) that follows the script of Fast Times At Ridgemont High and was made for MTV bank, "Stacy's Mom" sounded familiar yet like nothing on the radio at the time, and the little band that could found themselves with their biggest moment....
"Stacy's Mom" became the band's first and only hit on Billboard's Hot 100, reaching the top 40 in November of 2003. On the radio, the single peaked at #3 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, #20 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 list, and #31 on the Alternative Rock format. Internationally, the single hit #9 in Ireland, and reached the top-40 in the United Kingdom (#11), Canada (#12 Airplay/#13 Sales), Australia (#14), and New Zealand (#35). The Welcome Interstate Managers album, released in June of that year, crested at #115 on the Billboard 200 sales tally. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, "Stacy's Mom" was nominated for Best Duo/Group Pop Performance with Vocals, losing to No Doubt for "Underneath It All".
A second single, "Mexican Wine", didn't make much impact anywhere, and a follow-up, "Hey Julie", was a minor British hit at #57.
After an odds and ends collection Out Of State Plates in 2005, Fountains returned with their second set on S-Curve, Traffic And Weather, which came in at #97 on the Billboard 200 in 2007. Four years later, what would be their final studio album Sky Full Of Holes on the indie label Yep Roc, which would be their highest rank on the Billboard 200 at #37. Though they never officially announced a breakup, the Fountains drifted apart after that, with Collingwood and Porter going on to work with the Monkees. Sadly, Schlesinger was one of the first high-profile casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic, passing away from the disease in April of 2020.
(10/10)
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And here they are live in Chicago in 2009 for their live DVD...
and lastly, DC indie-pop group Sub-Radio, whose lead singer Adam Bradley came out at bisexual, did a totally awesome gender-flipping cover called "Stacy's Dad"...
Up Tomorrow: Country vocal powerhouse throws a ladies-only party.
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