All Kinds of Time
what happens when there isn't a chance to revisit the past?
This week we take a trip back to those halcyon days of the mid-Nineties to tell a story about what happens when you think you have time but you don’t. Sorry, but this one’s kind of a downer. I also wrote entirely too much, so please click to expand if your email client says the message is too long.
Two college classmates met for the first time at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, a small college town situated at the intersection of the state’s borders with New York and Vermont. Chris Collingwood, a Pennsylvania native, had a deep appreciation for Sixties pop music like the Zombies, the Hollies, and of course the Beatles. Meanwhile Adam Schlesinger, a native of New Jersey, had tastes that ran to the Eighties such as the Smiths, Prefab Sprout, and the Go-Betweens. Realizing they had enough musical common ground to be productive, they bounced around several different bands together before parting ways upon graduation. Those bands included Pinwheel (who recorded an album that was then unreleased after Pipeline Records went under) Are You My Mother? (named after the Dr. Seuss book) and a band called the Wallflowers before Jakob Dylan paid them to stop using the name. In the early Nineties, Chris relocated to Boston and formed a country group called the Mercy Buckets. Adam went to New York City and made inroads to commercial music, writing and producing jingles and film scores. Along the way he worked with seemingly dozens of other bands like the Belltower. Most notably, he co-founded pop mavens Ivy along with Andy Chase.
Ivy was signed to Seed Records (a vanity imprint not-so-secretly run by Atlantic Records) in 1994 by A&R executive Steve Yegelwel, and critical acclaim followed in the wake of their EP Lately and their first album Realistic. Pivotal to their approach was the addition of French vocalist Dominique Durand, who added a distinct accent and ethereal quality to their pop constructions. Though reviews were rave, the band frankly didn’t resonate with the wider public like the label hoped. Ivy was unceremoniously dropped from their contract.
Around the time of Ivy’s first album, Adam and Chris met up for drinks in Manhattan. The Mercy Buckets essentially disappeared without a trace, and Ivy was floundering. Collingwood was working a day job at American Express as a computer programmer, while Schlesinger had a publishing gig with Polygram Records. The two met to commiserate over the music industry’s tendency to chew up artists and spit them out. In an attempt to cheer each other up they began inventing the most ridiculous song titles they could think of, writing them down on bar napkins. They challenged each other to write verses and choruses on these concepts by the next day’s drinking session. Titles like “Survival Car”, “Leave the Biker”, and “Please Don’t Rock Me Tonight” somehow resulted in catchy, listenable songs.
Both Schlesinger and Collingwood tended to obsess over their compositions, so they decided to intentionally lean into their newfound spontaneity by completing a dozen songs in a week. The duo arranged a studio and recruited bassist Danny Weinkauf (from The Belltower, Lincoln, and later of They Might Be Giants fame) to lay down the tracks, with Adam and Chris contributing vocals, guitars, and keyboards. Adam provided the drums himself, along with handling production duties. The whole endeavor cost less than five thousand dollars.
Their scratch recordings earned a look from Atlantic Records, with whom Schlesinger already had a relationship from shopping Ivy around and his experience with Steve Yegelwel. The newly formed band needed a name once Atlantic expressed interest in signing them. After soliciting ideas from his mother of all people, Schlesinger decided to embrace the goofiness of the project and copied the name of a store selling lawn ornamentation and statuary in his native New Jersey: Fountains of Wayne. The album shared the name, though Collingwood initially hated the entire conceit.
Weinkauf was unavailable to join full time as a bassist, and the band needed a drummer as well. He recommended the guitarist from the Belltower, Jody Porter. His brand of British-invasion styled leads, tasteful but always fitting the song, synched up well with the already recorded album. He also added a bit more indie credibility to the proceedings, as the Belltower’s shoegaze-influenced pop struck a chord (see what I did there?) with critics though not record-buying audiences. Schlesinger switched to bass, allowing Porter to stay as guitarist. (Side note: the vocalist for the Belltower was Porter’s then-wife Britta Phillips, better known as the singing voice for cartoon rock icon Jem before teaming with her new husband Dean Wareham to form Luna.)
Speaking of oft-overlooked indie pop bands, the Posies had just finished their fourth album for DGC Records, and their third consecutive time being sent back to “record a hit” even though they thought they were done. Frustrated at the lack of label support and the lack of commercial success, the band took a break that left drummer Brian Young with some time on his hands. Young reached out to a friend at Atlantic who might be able to throw him some session work, just as Schlesinger and Collingwood needed a sure hand behind the kit. They asked Young to audition by requesting he perform the backbeat to Steve Miller’s “Swingtown”, and the rest is history.
Though the initial album listed only Schlesinger and Collingwood as the recording members, later reissues credited all four members of the band. In addition, the core songwriting duo decided to emulate the Beatles in more than just melodies. They decided to credit all Fountains of Wayne songs to Collingwood / Schlesinger no matter who actually wrote what. This was done to simplify publishing rights and decrease the chances of bad feelings while composing, which they largely did independent of the other. (It didn’t work at all, but more on that later.) Collingwood took the lead vocal on every song, with backing vocals becoming a shared responsibility.
Atlantic ended up promoting the album moderately well when it came out in October 1996, releasing four singles over the next two years. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but it was a much bigger hit with critics than the listening public. The album peaked at twentieth place on the Heatseekers chart, but did not crack the Billboard 200 album chart at all. In the UK, they reached number sixty seven overall. Ultimately, it sold around 120,000 copies worldwide. The band took the opportunity to gel over the next year when they toured behind the album, getting used to how they played and how they sounded together.
At about the same time that Fountains of Wayne came out, Schlesinger leveraged his publishing gig with Polygram to write a song for a quirky little film featuring a veteran actor making his directorial debut. That actor was incredibly hands on with the music, which made sense given the story was about a one hit wonder from the Sixties and their tribulations through the music industry. Of course, the actor was Tom Hanks and the song was the title song from That Thing You Do!. The movie was a moderate hit, earning back its budget. The soundtrack went to number twenty-one, selling more than a million copies. Schlesinger was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, marking the beginning of his acclaimed film and television songwriting.
Everyone in Fountains of Wayne stayed busy after their first album. Collingwood used his nervous energy to begin writing material for the follow-up; his anxieties about producing a worthy successor show up in the lyrics. Porter began working on both his own solo endeavors and various projects with his band Astrojet and his then-wife Phillips. Young rejoined the Posies for a collaboration with Burt Bacharach for the Austin Powers soundtrack and another full album, 1998’s Success. Though freed from the constraints of hit-making after being dropped from DGC, the album was yet another example of lackluster sales from the band. The Posies broke up shortly thereafter, freeing Young to work for Fountains of Wayne full-time.
Schlesinger was almost certainly the busiest of all. Schlesinger had founded the record label Scratchie Records with Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and bassist D’Arcy Wretzky in 1995, and running the label frequently fell to him. He embarked upon dozens of production and administrative gigs, both with Scratchie and for other labels. Ivy was still active at the time, and their 1997 album Apartment Life with new label Atlantic (a connection made by Schlesinger) is probably their best overall work. Despite rave reviews, Atlantic dropped the band after poor sales. (I tried to tell you it was a recurring theme in this article. It’s not over, either.)
The foursome reconvened in 1998 to create their next album. Although Schlesinger and Collingwood remained the sole credited writers, this time around they were composing specifically for Young and Porter to perform, particularly with an eye to performing live in concert. The year-long tour for their self-titled debut provided them with chemistry and ideas. Collingwood and Schlesinger wrote separately as usual, but both combined to decide on a theme: the suburbs of the northeast and how they affect the people who live there. One of the primary influences for the album was the Kinks’ Muswell Hillbillies, which shone a light on everyday people rather than the glamourous rock stars the public might believe a nationally touring band to be. Collingwood’s contributions are more high-strung and anxious than the relatively laid-back songs provided by Schlesinger; that was deliberate on Chris’ part as he wanted to ensure the band was treated as serious rather than a potential novelty group.
Utopia Parkway was released in April 1999 to a considerable degree of fanfare. People magazine declared it the album of the week, and the singles “Denise” and “Red Dragon Tattoo” received significant airplay and promotional effort. Fountains of Wayne toured behind the album, playing midsize venues to middling crowds. Unfortunately the label believed that putting forth more marketing would be counterproductive, so when the third single “Troubled Times” was released, it had no push behind it. This upset the band, as they thought that their moderate success deserved some support. Despite the best efforts of the band, the album sold less than half the copies of their previous outing. Atlantic dropped Fountains of Wayne by the end of the year, releasing them from their contractual obligations.
Needless to say, the band members were devastated. Reluctant to go on the hunt for a new record deal with the sting of failure so fresh, the band began an unofficial indefinite hiatus. Collingwood in particular took it hard, and he increased his alcohol intake accordingly. He described the process as working as hard as he ever had for four solid years, then ending up with nothing to show for it. The vagaries of the music industry meant that the band didn’t actually make any money besides living expenses during that time, so there was nothing to fall back on besides more work.
Porter began working on his solo album and an EP with Astrojet. Young stayed busy with session work and one-off gigs, including becoming Schlesinger’s go-to drummer for commercial work. Speaking of, Schlesinger ramped up his other entertainment work, writing and producing tracks for the Josie and the Pussycats movie. In addition, he produced material for They Might Be Giants and the Verve Pipe. There was also the rejuvenated Ivy to contend with, as they produced and released their third album Long Distance on Nettwerk. Ivy’s previous studio burned down in 1997, so they had to start fresh with a new label and new ideas. Durand had given birth as well, necessitating a short delay. Although less well-received than Apartment Life, it did well with licensing as several tracks were featured in both television and film. These connections would become vital later on. 2002’s Guestroom would see roughly the same critical and commercial reception, serving as a compilation of cover songs and treatments recorded over the past decade.
Eventually, Schlesinger convinced Collingwood to come back and try out some new songs. Without a record contract in hand there was no label support to fund a potential album, so everything was paid for out of pocket by the band itself. That’s not to say that labels weren’t sniffing around; after being dropped by Atlantic, several other companies reached out but they all wanted demos before committing to a full album. By this point, the band had been established and had national exposure so they believed asking for a demonstration of what they could do was at least a little insulting. Ergo, they struck out on their own with the assistance of producer Mike Deeneen.
While Fountains of Wayne were putting the final touches on new material, they decided to test some things out in limited engagements with a small tour. This might have been the best idea they’ve had, as it served several purposes. First, it allowed the band to congeal once more as a unit instead of disparate parts. Second, it made the band a little money to offset the costs of recording. Third, and perhaps most importantly, it built back a groundswell of support from fans. After a hiatus with limited visibility, fans were now reminded that FoW existed.
Once the album was essentially complete, Schlesinger reached out to his old A&R man Yegelwel. By now, Yegelwel had left Atlantic and moved on to the relatively untested S-Curve Records, a boutique label in partnership with both Virgin and EMI. At the time, the only hit for S-Curve was the Baha Men’s “Who Let the Dogs Out?”. (S-Curve is now owned by Disney, so that means “Stacy’s Mom” is technically a Disney Princess.) Yegelwel signed the band based on their track record, and was glad to have a finished product in hand.
One of S-Curve’s strategies for marketing FoW time around was to position them as a pop-rock group rather than an alternative band like Atlantic had done. Part of the approach was to partner with VH1 on a new animated show called Hey Joel, centered on music writer Joel Stein. Fountains of Wayne provided the music for each episode, producing twenty six songs in all. Writing for television or film was nothing new for Schlesinger in particular, but this was a new endeavor for the band as a whole. The series was an epic flop for the network, as elucidated in this article from Stein. FoW escaped relatively unscathed, and some of the songs are pretty good. Jacob Tierney of later Letterkenny fame got a payday too, which is nice.
Welcome Interstate Managers was released in June of 2003 to widespread critical acclaim. Metacritic lists it at 86 out of 100, which is practically unheard of for wide-release popular music. The album sold almost 10,000 copies in the first week of availability, making it their most successful album immediately. The key mover for the album was May’s debut of “Stacy’s Mom”, which had a hit video starring New Zealand supermodel Rachel Hunter. (Spoilers: the list section at the end of this piece omits the song.)
Somehow, despite being around for almost a decade and releasing three albums on major labels, Fountains of Wayne were nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy. (My feelings on the Grammys are widely known, specifically in regards to the Best New Artist award.) They also received a nod for Best Pop Performance by a Group or Duo with Vocal for “Stacy’s Mom”. Soon the band organized a co-headlining tour with Matchbox Twenty, who released their debut album on the same day for the same label. (Did the simultaneous release divide the attentions of Atlantic Records? Almost certainly. Explains some things, doesn’t it?) For a brief shining moment after Welcome Interstate Managers, Fountains of Wayne was at the top of the music world.
If this was an episode of VH1’s Behind The Music, you’d start to hear a maudlin string section right about now. The second single from the album, “Mexican Wine”, stalled out despite another big budget video. “Hey Julie” somehow fared even worse. By the middle of 2004, the band’s moment was fading fast. The sudden rise and fall was exacerbated by S-Curve Records becoming integrated into the Virgin Records machine, meaning that the band became a small fish in a big pond A&R-wise rather than a medium fish in a small pond. The lack of personal touch (S-Curve had less than ten people on staff) was a detriment to their marketing. The emotional toll grew as well as Collingwood in particular became more and more withdrawn, relying heavily on alcohol to get through the days.
Everyone went their separate ways after promotion ended, as was typical following an album. This cycle, though, the decision was made to put out a compilation album featuring B-sides and assorted demo tracks rather than a full new album. I can speculate as to why that happened, but seeing as certain people can’t be reached for comment right now, it seems vaguely inappropriate. Out of State Plates, a double album, was released in June 2005. The only single “Maureen”, one of four unreleased tracks, failed to chart while the album itself reached only 168 on the Billboard 200. The promotional tour afterwards turned into even more of a debacle.
While travelling to shows overseas in Japan in 2006, Chris Collingwood had a mental health crisis fueled in part by his increasing alcohol intake. He had been awake for four days straight, drinking and partying nonstop. Collingwood experienced hallucinations right as Fountains of Wayne prepared to play before 25,000 people, necessitating a trip to the emergency room, cancelled shows, and an involuntary return to the United States where he was admitted to a mental health facility for two weeks.
Collingwood’s health issues meant that the usual creative process for FoW was in limbo. While he worked on his well-being, the others resumed their side gigs. Schlesinger wrote music for the film Music and Lyrics and composed the score for the musical adaptation of John Waters’ Cry-Baby (which would go on to win four Tony nominations). Porter polished up his demos over the years, leading to Closer to the Sun’s release in 2008. Young worked as hard as ever in sessions and commercial gigs, the latter usually in concert with Schlesinger.
Once Collingwood was in a slightly better place both physically and mentally, the band reconvened at Schlesinger’s studio in upstate New York to work on new material. Instead of their traditional method of working on tracks individually and coming together for arrangements, Schlesinger asked Porter and Young to contribute more to the ideas that would become songs. Ultimately, only one song came from these group efforts, “Strapped for Cash”. I don’t want to speculate, but I believe there was a good reason for this. By Collingwood’s own admission, he had essentially “checked out” of the writing process. Though they share credits as usual, the publishing rights are clear: Schlesinger’s company Vaguely Familiar Music holds the rights to nearly everything on the album, while Collingwood’s Monkey Demon Music controls just “Fire in the Canyon”, “Hotel Majestic”, and “Seatbacks and Traytables”.
Traffic and Weather came out in April 2007, with two singles “Someone to Love” and “‘92 Subaru” though neither charted. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: reviews for the album were positive and encouraging, but sales were sluggish and at the end of the promotional cycle they were dropped from their label. In retrospect, Fountains of Wayne had all the hallmarks of the dreaded one hit wonder based on the strength of “Stacy’s Mom”. The lack of success aggravated a pre-existing rift in the band based on commercial appeal: Collingwood was reluctant to release “Stacy’s Mom”, but Schlesinger and the others were excited about the prospect of a hit. Everyone knew it had the potential to be popular, and it gave the band a chance at a big break. Unfortunately, it came to define Fountains of Wayne despite it not fitting into their overall presentation or even within its own album.
The Traffic and Weather tour became a slog for everyone, as resentments that had built up for years silently reared their heads. Collingwood felt that he didn’t have as much of a voice in the direction of their music or marketing as he did when they started, and Schlesinger felt that he had to pick up the slack because Collingwood was either unable or unwilling to contribute to the process meaningfully. I’m almost positive that there was a degree of jealousy in play as well, as Schlesinger had multiple ongoing projects that were creatively fulfilling while Collingwood essentially had just Fountains of Wayne as an outlet. Schlesinger’s output far outstripped Collingwood’s as well, with Adam writing every day while Chris relied on streaks of inspiration. Given his health issues, inspiration was light on the ground.
In the aftermath of the album, Schlesinger went as far to form a new band: Tinted Windows, featuring his business partner James Iha, Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos, guitarist Josh Lattanzi, and Hanson singer Taylor Hanson. Their self-titled album came out on S-Curve in 2009, though their busy schedules meant that they couldn’t reliably find time to record or perform together. (One of the great tragedies of the ages, as you’ll see.) The album wasn’t particular well-reviewed, though it holds a certain charm in that you get to see what these artists do in their off-time with zero expectations.
Fountains of Wayne wasn’t entirely on hold; they did record a live DVD and held a short series of acoustic-focused concerts in 2009. No Better Place is a fascinating encapsulation of the band at the time, though perhaps for the wrong reasons. Onstage, there’s a palpable tension amongst the band members. Never exactly a dynamic performer, Collingwood appears to want to be anywhere but there. Schlesinger and Porter are simply functionaries filling a role, while Porter is the only member exhibiting any energy at all. See for yourself here:
In 2010, it came time to record another album. Though they had been dropped by their label, various smaller companies expressed an interest in signing Fountains of Wayne and the winner was North Carolina’s Yep Roc Records. Founded by Tor Hansen and Glenn Dicker in 1997, their focus was on independent artists who ran the gamut of genres. Everything from Dave Alvin’s cowpunk to Los Straitjackets’ lucha-inspired surf music to Bob Mould’s heartfelt indie-pop found a home there. Perhaps FoW could find a home there as well?
If they could, it would have been a broken one. Tensions ran as high between Schlesinger and Collingwood as they ever had, and seemingly every conversation turned into an argument. Collingwood had largely recovered from his bout of mental illness, and wished to reassert himself as a creative force in the band. Schlesinger had run the band from both a business standpoint and a creative standpoint for the better part of a decade, and he was reluctant to let go of that responsibility. The duo reached out for professional help and saw a psychiatrist together to help them navigate their partnership. Finally, they made a decision: after this album and the subsequent tours, it was in everyone’s best interest to go their separate ways. The group just didn’t work anymore.
Released in July 2011, Sky Full of Holes is a marked departure from previous albums. Collingwood’s influence is far more strongly felt, with his sardonic flair for tuneful mopery present on more than half the songs. It’s almost certainly the least radio-friendly album Fountains of Wayne released, with many of the tracks hewing closer to alt-country than pop music. There are hooks to be heard (chiefly on the Schlesinger-penned songs), but they’re muted in comparison to the bombast of Welcome Interstate Managers or Traffic and Weather. Ironically, Sky Full of Holes is their highest charting album, reaching number thirty-seven on the Billboard 200.
The band toured in two parts, one right after the album’s release and one a year later supporting Soul Asylum and Evan Dando. The fractures between the songwriters were readily apparent, and performances were lackluster. Their last show was October 19, 2013 in Minneapolis. Afterwards, Collingwood and Schlesinger dissolved their partnership on both a professional and personal level, to the point that they didn’t even have each others’ phone numbers. By 2016, Fountains of Wayne seemed firmly in the rear-view mirror for each of the members.
Collingwood worked odd-jobs, including office temping and driving for Uber while writing songs in his spare time. (His wife worked in medicine, providing a stable income for the family.) He began recording demos for a solo album, which would eventually be credited under the name Look Park. Produced by Mitchell Froom and released by Yep Roc Records in 2016, it was a deliberate attempt to skew away from power-pop and more into the introspective, confessional folk that frequently emerged in Collingwood’s contributions to FoW. Listen in here:
Meanwhile, Schlesinger continued apace in his wide-ranging entertainment career. He wrote and produced tracks for America, the Monkees, and Robert Plant, sometimes including Porter and Young as well. His work with synthpop duo Fever High was a slight departure, but with as many different directions as he worked in, nothing was out of the realm of possibility. More notable was his increasing television work, where he wrote songs for the Tony Awards, the Emmy Awards, Sesame Street, and Stephen Colbert among others. His production on Stephen Colbert’s Christmas album earned him a Grammy for Best Comedy Album, which had to come as a surprise for a nice Jewish boy from New Jersey. His work with Colbert co-writer David Javerbaum resulted in the Broadway musical An Act of God, which premiered in May 2015.
Also in 2015, Adam Schlesinger was named the chief composer for Rachel Bloom’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, an hour-long musical sitcom on The CW network. Although one of the lowest rated television shows in history, especially given its four season run, it consistently earned praise from critics for both its comedy and its music. Schlesinger’s songs were singled out for multiple awards, including five Emmy nominations and one win in 2019. The songs are largely situated in musical theatre, but focus on topics like mental health, relationships, and family tension. At the beginning of 2020, Schlesinger was finishing his collaboration with Sarah Silverman on a theatrical adaptation of her memoir The Bedwetter. Simultaneously, he was co-writing a potential Broadway version of Fran Drescher’s The Nanny with Rachel Bloom.
Sadly, the world came to a halt in March 2020 thanks to the coronavirus. Around the middle of the month, Schlesinger began to feel ill. Soon, he was placed on a ventilator at a hospital in upstate New York near his home and recording studio. His condition worsened significantly over the next two weeks, and unfortunately he never recovered. Adam Schlesinger was one of the first notable people to die from COVID-19 on April 1, 2020 at the age of fifty-two.
Needless to say, his bandmates were anguished. Though he and Collingwood had not been in regular contact in years, neither had completely closed the door on a potential reunion. Porter and Young had maintained relationships with both, and were likewise not opposed to an eventual return somewhere along the way. The global pandemic robbed them of that opportunity.
The surviving members reunited virtually on April 20, 2020 for a livestream benefit concert, the proceeds of which went to MusiCares and the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund. Sitting in for backing vocals and bass duties was fellow New Jerseyite Sharon Van Etten.
Thus ends the story of one of the greatest power-pop groups of all time. Their timeless melodies, wry lyrics, and undeniable talent place them at the apotheosis of their genre. It is a terrible tragedy that we were never able to see the group reform for the nostalgia circuit or even a reunion album. We still have the magnificent songs, though, and I’d like to go through my top ten. Let’s get started with number ten…
10. It Must Be Summer
The opening guitar figure of “It Must Be Summer” descends on the listener like the Byrds / Big Star hybrid of your dreams. Those dreams are short-lived when the crushing rhythm guitar comes hurtling in just two bars later. It all resolves back in the second verse, where the tight Hollies-esque harmonies echo each line’s end along with a set of shimmering “ahs” and “sha-la-las”. Porter’s solo is drenched in reverb and crunch as a counterpoint. Young’s double-time tambourine provides a solid foundation throughout.
9. Bright Future in Sales
For the non-musicians amongst us, the start-stop rhythm and off-kilter overlapping vocals raise the level of difficulty for this song significantly. Performing in such a lockstep without losing the momentum is impressive. What’s more, the backing harmonies in time with the lead vocal are a rhythmic counterpoint to the instrumentation. If you’re doing both, good luck. In some ways, it’s a shame that the lyric renders this unplayable on radio since it’s ready-made for the airwaves.
8. Bought For a Song
Brian Young doesn’t get enough credit as a time-keeper and as an integral piece of each Fountains of Wayne song. “Bought For a Song” might be his best, as his four-on-the-floor snare work dominates the rhythm. Unlike much of their earlier work, this has a tinge of anger and an edge of aggression behind it, though the soaring harmonies behind the choruses undercuts it a bit. Young’s solo at the end of the song is a showcase for his skills and blends it all back together.
7. Mexican Wine
The lead-off track and second single from Welcome Interstate Managers is a fantastic tone-setter for their newly fleshed out sound. The keyboard brings to mind Bach or Mozart, at least until the distortion kicks in. There’s a horn section that serves as a glue merging the two, as do the backing vocals of Schlesinger and Porter. Schlesinger was adamant that he was at best the third most talented singer in the band, believing Porter to be as skilled a harmonist as anyone. I wish the video and promotion had done better, because this song is where the one-hit-wonder reputation was birthed. S-Curve did them dirty.
6. Troubled Times
The great lost single, both Schlesinger and Collingwood believed this was the straw that broke the camel’s back for label promotion. Dating from their initial days as Pinnwheel back at Williams College, “Troubled Times” is a slice of life ballad with a dose of hip-hop shuffle in the rhythm section. The label didn’t know what to do with it, as it was both more serious and more subdued than the lightweight pop-rock of the other singles, so they did nothing at all. The song did have a second life in licensing though, so the joke’s on Atlantic Records.
5. Hackensack
There’s a note of lounge-singer swagger in “Hackensack” thanks to the organ and guitar at the opening of the song. That distinctive gated out-of-phase lead contrasts with the rhythm guitar’s bounciness. It’s an atypical song for the group, and some would say it fits better in other artists’ hands. Even Katy Perry took a swing at it, altering the arrangement significantly when she tackled it on her MTV Unplugged appearance. Listen here:
4. Maureen
Taken solely as a guitar figure, this might be Jody Porter’s finest moment with Fountains of Wayne. The way his tone cuts through the spaces left by Brian Young’s frenetic drums means he gets to live out a little bit of guitar hero fantasy. That’s not to undersell the way Schlesinger’s keyboards double and triple the guitar line, with a bit of synth swagger and the help of a friendly expression pedal. It’s a beautiful slice of power-pop heaven, complete with echoes of everyone from Elvis Costello, the Kinks, and of course Cheap Trick.
3. Radiation Vibe
Few bands are blessed to launch an opening salvo like “Radiation Vibe”. From the opening wah-wah riff to the soaring chorus, it’s a bold statement of intent. The song established a template from which to work, starting with Collingwood’s laidback vocals layered in effects. His fundamental rasp is ever-present, and his rounded Northeast accent shines through. Neither Schlesinger nor Collingwood liked the video, but the label insisted that it was necessary to showcase the new band. It made the rounds of MTV, though not with the impact anyone would have liked.
2. All Kinds of Time
Obviously when you think “Fountains of Wayne”, you think about football. “All Kinds of Time” is a bit of shimmery delight, resplendent with sonic texture and depth. The lyrics are an homage to the plight of the quarterback behind a defensive line, and his thoughts when he’s under immense stress. As his mind drifts to his friends and his family while deciding to run or pass, time seems to stand still. The whole song takes just a handful of time to transpire in real time, but for four minutes and twenty-one seconds, we get to dip our toes into bliss
1. Hey Julie
Selecting what I believe to be the best Fountains of Wayne songs was incredibly difficult. Over five studio albums and a slew of b-sides, narrowing the list down to ten was a feat. Picking my number one, though, took five seconds tops. “Hey Julie” is one of the most tender, sweet, adorable love songs ever written. The delicateness of the simple arrangement belies its melodic complexity, with multiple layers of instruments and vocals combining to create a picture-perfect whole. It’s the duo of Collingwood and Schlesinger at their most Beatle-esque, taking parts of each member in turn. The guitar is Harrison, the melody is McCartney, the vocal is Lennon, and the even the percussion has that distinctive Starr flair when it accents the “off” beat. I’d listen to this over and over if I could.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this exploration of Fountains of Wayne’s music and history. To peel back the curtain a bit, I’ve been working on this piece for a couple of months on and off because I wanted to ensure I got it right. I like alternating more in-depth articles with lighter fare to provide a bit of novelty, and I hope the variety is pleasing to you as well. Most likely, that means another shorter piece next time around. Won’t you join me? Click the buttons above to subscribe. It’s free! Leave a comment with criticism or praise, and don’t forget to suggest some topics you would like to see me cover. See you next time!