Why Adam Schlesinger was a songwriting genius: farewell to the pied piper of suburbia

We wish we could hear a tune about today's times from the New York singer and songwriter: it would have been witty and heartfelt

Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne passed away on April 1, 2020 from complications due to the Coronavirus EPA/SHAWN

Singer, songwriter and bassist Adam Schlesinger died on Wednesday, April 1, in New York.

After a week in the hospital, Schlesinger succumbed to complications that arose during his battle with the coronavirus.

The fact Schlesinger left us on April Fool’s Day is rather befitting, as humour – both winking and snarky – was the cornerstone of his songwriting. He often portrayed the lives of society's little guys: the security guards, the waitresses, the truck drivers and those who spend their days in office cubicles.

He was not interested in re-inventing the wheel. He knew the real challenge was finding genuine things to say in the format of the three-minute pop song

A master of minutiae

Schlesinger was their champion. His songs, particularly with the indie rock group he co-led, Fountains of Wayne, were not a form of escapism. They were the opposite. Through his keen lyricist eye, he told us to appreciate life’s little moments.

No circumstance, including ordering a hamburger, was too trivial for him to write about. He has even waxed lyrical about a gardening appliance. It was precisely through dealing with the everyday minutiae of life that Schlesinger delivered some of his grandest statements.

You won't find a better example of this than Fountains of Wayne's third album, Welcome Interstate Managers.

Released in 2003, it remains a power-pop masterpiece and is full of songs – co-written with guitarist and singer Chris Collingwood – about life in modern-day suburbia.

There is the office burnout in Bright Future in Sales who promises to get his life together: "'Cause I can't live like this for ever / You know I've come too far and I don't want to fail / I got a new computer and a bright future in sales."

Hackensack is all about the heartbreak of a romance outgrowing its small-town beginnings, while the majestic All Kinds of Time takes us into the mind of an American football player, whose life flashes before him as he lines up to make that game-winning play.

All of this could have become quixotic Americana if it wasn’t for the genuine empathy Schlesinger had for his cast of misfits and jocks: their fear, sadness and regret is something we can all relate to.

And none of these songs would have been appreciated beyond their suburban settings if it wasn’t for the melodic ingenuity coursing throughout the band’s work.

Fountains of Wayne: power pop gurus

A mixture of pop classicists The Beatles and The Kinks, and the buzz saw guitars of The Cars and Cheap Trick, the band remain the go-to for any power-pop fan.

Central to their appeal is a keen appreciation of melody.

Schlesinger understood the potency of a good chorus. A student of pop music songwriting, he was not interested in reinventing the wheel. He knew the real challenge was in finding genuine things to say within the format of the classic three-minute pop song.

But people often take the familiar for granted. This unfortunately resulted in Fountains of Wayne releasing songs that should have been hits, but weren't.

The only exception being their one and only commercial hit, 2003's Stacy's Mom (also on Welcome Interstate Managers), its success considerably helped by its steamy video featuring Rachel Hunter.

Schlesinger's success in the movie biz

While Fountains of Wayne will always be tied to his legacy, Schlesinger found greater success as a songwriter for film, television and the stage. What began as a side hustle between tours, grew to become a blossoming career that led to three Emmy Awards and one Grammy.

Actor Tom Hanks (who recently recovered from the coronavirus), hired Schlesinger to write for his 1996 directorial debut That Thing You Do!

"There would be no Playtone [Hank's film company] without Adam Schlesinger, without his That Thing You Do!" Hanks wrote on Twitter today. "He was a One-der. Lost him to Covid-19. Terribly sad today. Hanx"

His work with Hanks, writing the key Beatlesque song That Thing You Do, was the beginning of his movie career. The track had all the characteristics of a Fountains of Wayne song – melody, witty wordplay and neat power chords.

But Schlesinger really spread his wings on Broadway: he co-wrote songs for the 2008 critically acclaimed production Cry Baby, based on John Water's 1990 film, while his comedic nous was well utilised when he co-wrote Neil Patrick Harris's opening theme song for the 2011 Tony Awards.

On the television front, he earned his Emmy Awards for numerous compositions in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, a Glee-like comedy series featuring plenty of Broadway-worthy numbers.

In between all this, he maintained a steady touring schedule with Fountains of Wayne, as well as his two other power-pop bands Operation Ivy and the short-lived super-group Tinted Windows (2009-2011) featuring singer Taylor Hanson, Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and Cheap Trick drummer Bun E Carlos.

The fact we won’t hear new wistful melodies from Schlesinger ever again, either on record or on stage, is particularly sad because his humour and humanity is sorely needed in these increasingly uncertain times.

He would have released something not as upsettingly trite as the Gal Gadot-led celebrity version of John Lennon's Imagine.

It would have probably been about some schmuck staying at home watching TV because he was self-isolating, and it would have been gloriously witty, heartfelt and tear-inducing.

But what we do have left is a body of work that will surely influence a new generation of keen singer-songwriters.

With Schlesinger gone, the pied-piper of suburbia has left us.

Everyday life just got a little more sad and a little less funny.