Adam Schlesinger, a singer-songwriter for the bands Fountains of Wayne and Ivy who had an award-winning second career writing songs for film, theater and television, died on Wednesday. He was 52.
The cause was complications of the coronavirus, said Josh Grier, his lawyer.
In Fountains of Wayne, which was started in 1995, Mr. Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood perfected a novelistic form of hummable pop-rock in a style derived equally from the Kinks and 1970s groups like Big Star and the Cars.
The group are best known for their 2003 hit
“Stacy’s Mom,” a winking novelty track about a teenage boy infatuated with a friend’s mother. With a racy video featuring the supermodel Rachel Hunter, the song went to No. 21 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
Almost from the start of his career, Mr. Schlesinger found success in other mediums. He wrote the Beatles-esque theme song to “That Thing You Do!,” a 1996 film directed by Tom Hanks about an also-ran 1960s rock band. He also won three Emmy Awards for
his songs on the 2010s TV show “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” which threaded campy, Broadway-style songs through its plot.
He was part of the Rachel Bloom live show I saw last year.
