Oscar, Golden Globe, Tony, Grammy and Emmy award nominated musician Adam Schlesinger has died after spending two weeks on a ventilator due to COVID-19. He was 52.
Schlesinger was a unique talent, sought after by film, television and broadway producers on account of his rare ability to write songs in almost any genre or time period.
He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for writing the title song for the Tom Hank's directed That Thing You Do! He won multiple Emmys writing for the Tony Awards as well as the CW series My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. He wrote Emmy nominated songs for Sesame Street, and the songs for the Grammy winning Stephen Colbert Christmas album.
He also came to KFI with his Fountains of Wayne co-founder Chris Collingwood for an interview/performance on my weekend show. Adam was very gracious and funny and invited me to go on tour with the band. He was joking, of course.
I'm not going to embed the video for their Grammy nominated hit Stacy's Mom, because most people know that. Instead, please enjoy the eerily accurate "80s synth pop hit" he wrote for the film Music and Lyrics, starring Hugh Grant as a washed-up former pop star. To this day, there are countless people who have no idea that this WASN'T a huge worldwide hit in the 80s.