Discover Adam Schlesinger's lesser-known gems

The music world took a hit last week with the death of Fountains of Wayne frontman Adam Schlesinger. Just 52 years old, he’s survived by a vast catalog of power pop that includes studio albums, Broadway musicals, and high-profile TV and film soundtracks. He won an Emmy, and earned Tony and Academy Award nominations (the latter for the title song to the film That Thing You Do).

Fountains of Wayne was the rare band whose nearly two decades of sustained success never propelled them to household-name status. Fans reveled in that magic feeling of having the group all to themselves: This is mine. They make these songs for me.

And while the feeling of private ownership may have been misplaced — witness the outpouring of love from the likes of Tom Hanks, Rachel Bloom, Stephen Colbert, and a stunning number of people lighting up social media — Schlesinger’s side projects fit the sleeper bill nicely. He was a prolific songwriter, engineer, producer, composer, and studio player. In a mere four seasons he wrote or co-wrote 157 songs for the hit TV show My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. And as full-time member of indie supergroups like Ivy and Tinted Windows, he dabbled in sounds that colored outside the lines of the songs that made him almost famous. His fingerprints are all over the pop music landscape of the last 25 years.

In the wake of his death it’s easy to find excellent tributes and deep dives into the Fountains of Wayne discography, curated by far more knowledgable fans. So in lieu of that, here’s a lesser known gem that Schlesinger produced for longtime pop-punk darling Motion City Soundtrack. He didn’t write it. He didn’t sing it. He didn’t play it. But it’s impossible not to hear his guiding influence on the other side of the glass. Here’s to fallen artists and the gifts they leave behind.