Stacy's Mom
| "Stacy's Mom" | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) | ||||||||||
| Single by Fountains of Wayne | ||||||||||
| from the album Welcome Interstate Managers | ||||||||||
| Released | September 29, 2003, March 8 2004 UK | |||||||||
| Format | Digital download, CD single | |||||||||
| Genre | Power pop, pop punk | |||||||||
| Length | 3:19 | |||||||||
| Label | Virgin | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | Adam Schlesinger, Chris Collingwood | |||||||||
| Certification | Gold (ARIA) | |||||||||
| Fountains of Wayne singles chronology | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
"Stacy's Mom" is a hit single by American band Fountains of Wayne, released in 2003 and taken from their album Welcome Interstate Managers.
"Stacy's Mom" appeared in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart (#21) and was one of the first songs to reach the #1 spot on the "Most Downloaded Songs" list of the iTunes Music Store. It reached #11 in the UK Singles Chart. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Vocal Pop Performance at the 2004 awards. The video reached #1 on both MTV's TRL and VH1's VSpot Top 20 Countdown. The song was included on the setlist for Guitar Hero: Van Halen as a guest act. It also appeared in an episode of the television series Psych.
The song ranks #350 on Blender's 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born[1] and #88 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the '00s.[2]
Texan rock band Bowling For Soup covered the song in 2011. The song was featured in a Cadillac commercial for the Cadillac SRX.
Music
"Stacy's Mom" was written by Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger. Stylistically it is power pop. It begins with an intro similar to the one in "Just What I Needed" by The Cars. Overall it presents the listener with a very accessible melody starting with a 1 - 4 - 5 - 4 chord progression in E major, and launches into a crescendo as a segue to the refrain that is complete with vocal harmonies. Standard rock instrumentation comprises the orchestration: drums, bass, guitar, vocals, and keys.[3]
Subject matter
"Stacy's Mom" is about an adolescent boy's fantasies about his female friend Stacy's attractive mother. The boy spends time with Stacy in an attempt to get closer to her mother.
Music video
.jpg)
The music video, directed by Chris Applebaum, pays homage to the 1982 movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The video features several comedic scenes illustrating the boy's attempts to get closer to Stacy's mother, the object of his affections and fantasies. There is a scene which shows Stacy wearing red heart-shaped sunglasses, which are very similar to the ones on the promotional picture for the 1962 film Lolita. There is also a nod to Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher" video.
The video begins with the boy (Shane Haboucha), Stacy (Gianna Distenca) and some other children standing at a school crossing. Stacy's mother (Rachel Hunter) then pulls up in front of them to pick up Stacy. The boy and his friends gaze at her in awe. The boy later goes over to Stacy's house and is seen lying on a pool toy in her backyard swimming pool while wearing large, dark shades. Through a window he sees Stacy's mother, and then watches her undress. Stacy gives the boy a bottle of soda and, as he sees Stacy's mother remove her bra, he spills soda on himself. As his eyes are hidden by his shades, Stacy laughs, thinking that he is just clumsy. After a scene with the band during the chorus, Stacy is shown sunbathing while the boy mows her lawn. Stacy's mother comes out wearing just a towel and is given a massage on both her back and front. The masseur gives the boy a look of amusement, since he gets to look at Stacy's mother naked and the boy doesn't. The boy is distracted by the massage and ends up knocking over Stacy's birdhouse with the lawnmower. The video then cuts to him and Stacy watching Fountains of Wayne on TV, before the boy imagines Stacy's mother as a pole dancer teasing him. Near the end of the video, it is implied that the boy begins to masturbate by the bathroom window while staring at Stacy's mother coming out of the pool in her red bikini.[4] Before he finishes, Stacy opens the bathroom door, ignoring a sign saying Ocupado and catches him in the act. Then, as in the movie, she quickly closes the door and starts smiling, showing that she might be thinking the boy is masturbating to her own image and not her mother's, supported by the fact she shows an obvious attraction to the boy throughout the video.[5]
Influence of The Cars
Adam Schlesinger says "Stacy's Mom" was a tribute to The Cars, whose single "Just What I Needed" has an intro similar to "Stacy's Mom". Cars frontman Ric Ocasek thought that the intro was a sample from "Just What I Needed"[6] but the band says they performed it in the studio and just "got it right." Fountains of Wayne had asked Ocasek to be in the video for the song. Schlesinger explains that while Ocasek claims that he "politely declined", he actually just never responded to the request. Schlesinger holds no ill feelings and expresses the highest regard for Ocasek.[7]
There are several references to The Cars in the video: a license plate reads "I ♥ RIC", a reference to Ric Ocasek; one of the boys in the opening scene has dark hair, sun glasses, and clothes such that he looks like an adolescent version of Ocasek; the trademark Elliot Easton "bouncing" (at approximately 1:15 into the video) and hairdo as he plays his guitar for The Cars; and the re-creation of the Fast Times scene, which featured The Cars' "Moving in Stereo". Further links to The Cars and New Wave music are given by the magazine Nu Wave that is featured in the video, the Roland Juno-6 keyboard (a synthesizer of the 1980s), and the record sleeve showing 'Stacy's Mom' in a car.[8]
Chart performance
| Chart (2003–04) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[ 1] | 14 |
| Canada (Nielsen SoundScan)[9] | 13 |
| Netherlands (Mega Single Top 100)[ 1] | 99 |
| New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[ 1] | 35 |
| UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[ 1] | 11 |
| US Billboard Hot 100[9] | 21 |
| US Billboard Pop Songs[9] | 3 |
| US Billboard Adult Pop Songs[9] | 20 |
| US Billboard Alternative Songs[9] | 31 |
References
- ↑ The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born: 350–351
- ↑ Anderson, Kyle (September 29, 2011). "U2, Rihanna, Amy Winehouse, Foo Fighters fill out VH1's '100 Greatest Songs of the '00s'". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
- ↑ Fountains of Wayne – "Stacy's Mom" sheet music. Hal Leonard. 2003. pp. 1–7. UPC: 7399952767.
- ↑ Fountains of Wayne. Stacy's Mom. Virgin Records/EMI Music. Event occurs at 3:00–3:08.
- ↑ Fountains of Wayne. Stacy's Mom. Virgin Records/EMI Music. Event occurs at 3:08–3:17.
- ↑ (This is more likely similar to the intro of Best Friends Girl, and Just What I Needed combined). Fountains Of Wayne US, "February 8, 2006 – Ric Ocasek"
- ↑ Interview with Adam Schlesinger, May 2007 =)
- ↑ "Left of The Dial". Retrieved 2006-08-16.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Allmusic peaks
External links
| |||||||||||||||||