Fountains Of Wayne's Chris Collingwood Regrets Releasing 'Stacy's Mom'

After tragically losing his life to COVID-19 earlier this month, musicians have been honoring Adam Schlesinger for his power pop legacy, as well as his impressive musical contributions to television, film, and theater. Though the songwriter was nominated for Oscars, Tonys, and Emmys (the latter of which he won) in his lifetime, he's best known for his role in Fountains of Wayne — a band that's claim to fame is the novelty track "Stacy's Mom." And despite it scoring the group a Grammy nomination, lead vocalist Chris Collingwood regrets ever releasing it.

During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Collingwood admits he tried to talk Schlesinger out of putting the song on their 2003 album Welcome Interstate Managers. "He was too good a writer to have that be his calling card, and the success of a novelty song means that’s just what you are to the public, from that moment on forever," he said, lamenting that those who read his obituary will know that song and not tracks like "I-95" and "The Girl I Can't Forget."

"I was reluctant to [record] it at all, but in the moment you don’t want to kill the session by not being a good sport," Collingwood confessed. "There were other things we did, kind of joking around, that we would put out as a B-side or whatever. When it was done, I didn’t think it belonged on the album. Even on a record that was stylistically all over the place, that song didn’t fit in. It sounded like a different band."

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