How Adam Schlesinger achieved pop per­fec­tion with That Thing You Do

The sad news of Adam Schlesinger’s death due to coro­n­avirus-relat­ed com­pli­ca­tions had fans every­where hum­ming ​‘Stacy’s Mom’ in a low and som­bre key. But the Foun­tains of Wayne hit, co-writ­ten with front­man Chris Colling­wood, was far from the only ear­worm Schlesinger was respon­si­ble for.

An accom­plished mul­ti-instru­men­tal­ist with a knack for catchy, iron­ic pop songs, Schlesinger lent his song­writ­ing genius to numer­ous movies and TV shows over the years. Most recent­ly, he served as exec­u­tive music pro­duc­er on CW series Crazy Ex-Girl­friend, co-cre­at­ed by Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna.

Almost 20 years before writ­ing 157 songs for the show – includ­ing the Emmy-win­ning, La La Land-inspired ​‘Anti­de­pres­sants Are So Not a Big Deal’ – Schlesinger tried his hand at writ­ing a retro melody for Tom Han­ks’ direc­to­r­i­al debut, That Thing You Do!.

The 1996 musi­cal com­e­dy fol­lows the mete­oric rise of fic­tion­al band The Oned­ers (pro­nounced ​“One-ders”, lat­er restored to its orig­i­nal spelling by Han­ks’ char­ac­ter, sea­soned record pro­duc­er Mr White). It’s 1964 in Erie, Penn­syl­va­nia and this Bea­t­les-esque pop quar­tet are des­per­ate­ly push­ing for their big break.

When Guy Pat­ter­son (Tom Everett Scott) steps in for for­mer drum­mer Chad (Gio­van­ni Ribisi) after he breaks his arm just before a tal­ent show, he believes it’s going to be for one night only. And his girl­friend Tina (Char­l­ize Theron) couldn’t agree more.

Once at the show, Guy tries to speed things up as Tina’s impa­tience becomes more and more appar­ent. The drum­mer turns the bal­lad writ­ten by arro­gant front­man Jim­my (Johnathon Schaech) into a song short enough to give Tina the time to refresh her make­up before their date.

Lit­tle does Guy know that his acci­den­tal uptem­po will make ​‘That Thing You Do’ into a snap­py, pep­py hit ready to take the Bill­board charts and the hearts of hun­dreds of fan­girls by storm, if only for a sum­mer. Toy­ing with the clas­sic themes of ​’60s pop rock – pri­mar­i­ly a con­sum­ing, unre­quit­ed love for a coquet­tish young woman — Schlesinger’s song is delight­ful­ly self-aware and, cru­cial­ly, impos­si­ble to resist.

After the film’s release, Schlesinger explained that he wrote the track as a cre­ative exer­cise right before Foun­tains of Wayne released their debut album. With his friend and pro­duc­er Mike Vio­la pro­vid­ing the lead vocals and Schlesinger singing back-up, the per­fect fake ​’60s bop was born. He didn’t think his demo was going to be picked up, but its British Inva­sion-inspired groove sealed the deal.

Mir­ror­ing the fic­tion­al suc­cess of the band, ​‘That Thing You Do’ entered the actu­al Bill­board Hot 100 peak­ing at 41 and secur­ing Schlesinger nom­i­na­tions for Best Orig­i­nal Song at the Gold­en Globes and the Oscars in 1997. Fic­tion and real­i­ty over­lapped once more when Han­ks estab­lished his pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny and record label Play­tone in 1998, nam­ing it after the record com­pa­ny fea­tured in the movie.

Remem­ber­ing Schlesinger after his death, Han­ks acknowl­edged the songwriter’s piv­otal role in cre­at­ing Play­tone. ​“There would be no Play­tone with­out Adam Schlesinger, with­out his ​‘That Thing You Do’,” he tweet­ed. ​“He was a One-der.”