What Adam Schlesinger Knew About America
The Fountains of Wayne front man, who died of complications from the coronavirus, made big songs about small triumphs.
In this reality we all live in, the one in which America fumbles to remember a notion of “common good” so as to fight a disease tearing through individually vibrant lives, Adam Schlesinger had one big enduring hit: 2003’s “” by his group Fountains of Wayne. But in other worlds, imagined ones, Schlesinger had other smashes, and many were just as good as the real thing. The 1996 Tom Hanks film portrayed a band rocketing to fame on the strength of , which Schlesinger wrote, , about a middle-aged pop star trying to revive his career. On the 2010s TV comedy characters Schlesinger’s madcap words to audiences that often existed only in those characters’ heads.
