Power pop band Fountains of Wayne was formed by Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood – they took their name from a now-defunct lawn ornament store in New Jersey. Apart from one fluke hit (2003’s ‘Stacy’s Mom’) they were never huge sellers, but they earned the affection of music aficionados with albums like 1996’s Fountains of Wayne and 1999’s Utopia Parkway. With Schlesinger’s disorienting passing from Covid-19 this week, let’s look back at one of the band’s rarities.
I may not have admitted it at the time, but Britney Spears’ early hits like ‘Oops! …I Did It Again’ and ‘…Baby One More Time’ are robust pop songs. Richard Thompson delivered a great solo acoustic take of ‘Oops! …I Did It Again’ on 1000 Years of Popular Music. During the Utopia Parkway era, Fountains of Wayne needed a b-side for the UK market and heard ‘…Baby One More Time’ on the radio. According to Schlesinger they thought “God this is a really good song” and recorded their own version in an hour in Schlesinger’s apartment.
When they submitted it to their record company, Atlantic announced that ‘…Baby One More Time’ would be the album’s first single. Understandably, Collingwood threw a tantrum and according to Schlesinger it “turned into this big mess”. Fountains of Wayne’s ‘…Baby One More Time’ was shelved, although it was leaked and played on the Howard Stern show. It later turned up on the band’s rarities collection Out-Of-State Plates.
‘…Baby One More Time’ is well constructed, and it sounds great as a guitar-driven power-pop song. Robert Christgau later wrote that it’s “as redolent and fetching as any of [Fountains of Wayne]’s peaks”. A surprising array of artists have covered ‘…Baby One More Time’ – Ahmet and Dweezil Zappa, Travis, Bowling for Soup, and Swedish humorist heavy metal band Black Ingvars are among many versions – but Fountains of Wayne were the first.
Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
11 Comments
I too would have been reluctant to admit it at the time – but that chord progression is a beaut!
It took me a long time to accept that Max Martin has written some very good songs.
I really enjoyed Travis’s cover. Found it quite hilarious the first time I heard it. I could totally see it as a power pop tune.
Richard Thompson’s ‘Oops I Did It Again’ is funny because he’s old, has a beard, and does fancy guitar solos.
I like this a lot. I like it better than their hit. It is some good power pop. It is in much better hands…imo.
Troubled Times is my favourite Fountains on Wayne song though.
Yes, they did a lot of better stuff than Stacy’s Mom. That just happened to pander to the great American youth market, via the supposedly universal idea of fancying your girlfriend’s mother. My favourite was Radiation Vibe, which chugs along like a well-oiled machine.
I like Stacy’s Mom fine, but they have better songs. Troubled Times has always been my favourite – just a really well written piece of power pop.
I had forgotten about this one – listening to it again I really like it. You’re right, it works well as a guitar driven pop song! Was listening to their first album again the other day – some great songs on that one.
It has pretty cool chords, as Geoff1001 said – jumps from a I to a III, which is unexpected.
[…] undertones, Fountains of Wayne’s “Baby One More Time” is wistful. Music critic Robert Christgau called it “as redolent and fetching as any of their […]
Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person.
Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate both Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Based in Fleet Street (New Zealand), he's been writing this blog since around 2000. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
Review Pages
Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:
Brian Eno started his musical career as a member of Roxy Music, where he used his synthesiser to treat Phil Manzanera’s guitar and Andy Mackay’s saxophone and oboe. After leaving Roxy Music he built up an impressive catalogue as a producer, with significant albums for David Bowie, Talking Heads, Devo, […]
10,000 Maniacs have one of the most misleader monikers in popular music. From their name, you’d expect speed metal or punk, but instead, they’re a folk-rock band with socially conscious lyrics and Natalie Merchant’s oddly mannered vocals. The band were previously known as Burn Victims before deriving their name from […]
Canadian indie pop band The New Pornographers took their name from a 1966 Japanese anthropological film, The Pornographers. The term super-group has always felt a little misleading for this conglomerate of musicians – most of the members were only known within the Canadian music scene, and it’s largely the success […]
R.E.M. emerged in the wake of punk from Athens, Georgia, and started their career as an insular Indie band, with cryptic albums that enjoyed a cult following. But gradually they beefed up their sound, experienced airplay, signed up to a major label, and became one of the most successful bands […]
In New Zealand we have a sporting cliche, “a game of two halves”. This certainly applies to Tom Waits’ musical career. For the first ten years of his recording career, he was a singer-songwriter, often on the piano, but with influences of jazz and blues. Waits often wrote about life […]
Emmylou Harris started as a folkie – born in Alabama, she dropped out of college to perform folk songs in Greenwich Village. She recorded an unsuccessful debut album, 1969’s Gliding Bird, and as a divorced solo mother she dropped out of the folk scene. She was spotted performing by Chris […]
Blog Posts
I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:
Neil Finn grew up in the provincial town of Te Awamutu, New Zealand, and joined his brother Tim in the art-rock band Split Enz as a teenage guitarist. When they switched gears to new wave pop, Neil provided their most recognisable song, ‘I Got You’. After Tim Finn left the […]
English folk-rock duo Richard and Linda Thompson’s career resembled a soap opera. Active as recording artists between 1974 and 1982, they married, released three albums in quick succession, then spent three years in a Sufi Muslim commune where Richard’s religious leader forbade him from playing music. Leaving the commune, their […]
In tandem with Robert Forster, Grant McLennan was a vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for literate Australian jangle-pop band The Go-Betweens. While The Go-Betweens were on hiatus during the 1990s, Grant McLennan embarked on a solo career, releasing four solo albums, two albums with The Church’s Steve Kilbey, and one album […]
Creedence Clearwater Revival emerged in 1968, seemingly from a Florida swamp but actually from El Cerrito in California. Rebelling against the psychedelic music that was prevalent at the time, Creedence began their career playing stripped-down and bluesy swamp rock. As CCR’s career progressed, frontman John Fogerty’s writing grew in confidence, […]
When people talk about wasted potential in rock and roll, it’s usually premature deaths like Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, or Kurt Cobain. Pink Floyd’s original leader Syd Barrett also belongs on the list. Although Barrett lived into his sixties, his musical career was effectively over by his mid-twenties, burned out by […]
Despite a career that spans from the 1962 single ‘Golden Gridiron Boy’ to the 2017 album Dark Matter, L.A. singer-songwriter Randy Newman has only recorded eleven studio albums. He’s also achieved recognition as a film composer, for movies like 1980’s Ragtime and the Toy Story franchise. Newman is acclaimed as […]
I too would have been reluctant to admit it at the time – but that chord progression is a beaut!
It took me a long time to accept that Max Martin has written some very good songs.
I really enjoyed Travis’s cover. Found it quite hilarious the first time I heard it. I could totally see it as a power pop tune.
Richard Thompson’s ‘Oops I Did It Again’ is funny because he’s old, has a beard, and does fancy guitar solos.
I like this a lot. I like it better than their hit. It is some good power pop. It is in much better hands…imo.
Troubled Times is my favourite Fountains on Wayne song though.
Yes, they did a lot of better stuff than Stacy’s Mom. That just happened to pander to the great American youth market, via the supposedly universal idea of fancying your girlfriend’s mother. My favourite was Radiation Vibe, which chugs along like a well-oiled machine.
I like Stacy’s Mom fine, but they have better songs. Troubled Times has always been my favourite – just a really well written piece of power pop.
I had forgotten about this one – listening to it again I really like it. You’re right, it works well as a guitar driven pop song! Was listening to their first album again the other day – some great songs on that one.
It has pretty cool chords, as Geoff1001 said – jumps from a I to a III, which is unexpected.
[…] undertones, Fountains of Wayne’s “Baby One More Time” is wistful. Music critic Robert Christgau called it “as redolent and fetching as any of their […]