hi hungry, I'm dad

November 26, 2022 11:59 PM

Stacy's dad By Sub-Radio. More about the cover and the band at Mel Magazine

The original Stacy's Mom, by Fountains of Wayne

Bonus cover of original by Postmodern Jukebox

posted by Gorgik (27 comments total)

Stacy's Brother gets some appreciation, but I feel bad that no one is into Stacy at all.
Poor Stacy.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 1:05 AM on November 27, 2022 [14 favorites]

I don’t get “it’s Mr. Stacy’s Mom for me”.

Anyway here’s Robbie Fulks’ “Fountains of Wayne Hotline” just because it’s great.
posted by nicwolff at 2:35 AM on November 27, 2022 [12 favorites]

And another bonus cover, by Clyde and Gracie Lawrence.
posted by nicwolff at 2:45 AM on November 27, 2022

Love the interview, love the song.

Thanks for posting!
posted by cynical pinnacle at 4:08 AM on November 27, 2022

“Ménage a garage”.
posted by mhoye at 6:26 AM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

I don’t get “it’s Mr. Stacy’s Mom for me”.

I think it's a reference to Mr. Mom
posted by Gorgik at 6:48 AM on November 27, 2022

I follow Chris Collingwood (FOW lead singer; not the late Adam Schlesinger, who wrote Stacey's Mom and died of Covid) on Twitter and have met him a few times. It's clear that he haaaates this song so much, and I always feel bad for him when it pops back up as a thing on social media.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 6:53 AM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

Trash Theory on “Stacy’s Mom,” Fountains of Wayne and the Many Imaginary Hits of Adam Schlesinger
posted by fings at 7:49 AM on November 27, 2022 [5 favorites]

So many people thought Stacy's Mom was by Bowling for Soup they went ahead and covered it.
posted by Ike_Arumba at 7:51 AM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Chris Collingwood has said that his reaction when Schlesinger first played him Stacy's Mom was, "This song will be a massive hit. If we record it, nobody will remember anything else you've ever written." He's said it bums him out because he felt like Schlesinger deserved better, and he did.

Schlesinger's response, of course, was to release the song, chart a hit, record two more (stupidly good) albums with Collingwood, and go on to co-write all the music on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. So he was a little less romantic about his own career. Still, it's wild that the guy who wrote Stacy's Mom got a full EGOT nomination.

His death was when COVID suddenly felt way too real for me. I miss him.
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 8:05 AM on November 27, 2022 [25 favorites]

Guess what my first name is. That Fountains of Wayne song came out when I was in junior high. It was awful. There was one other Stacy who had been in school with me since kindergarten and we never got along, but in the locker room once before gym in junior high I said "don't you hate that song?" as some other girls tried to tell me why it's actually funny and I should like it. And for that one moment annoying weird fat Stacy (me) and student government good girl Stacy (her) agreed. We fucking hated that song and fountains of wayne could shove it. Stacy R and Stacy S unified for one moment, and never again.

Now that the name Stacy is used in incel communities to be a Chad's girlfriend (with many other horrendous implications) the song doesn't seem as bad!
posted by wellifyouinsist at 8:22 AM on November 27, 2022 [13 favorites]

The REAL Fountains of Wayne.
posted by Ideefixe at 9:19 AM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Adam was a genius. Also speaking of other good songs, what about "I Want An Alien for Christmas?" I think he would have loved this, and it's a really fun video.

I feel very sorry for Stacy though. Nobody wants her! I'm a Stacy! Where's our song?!
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:52 AM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

I don’t get “it’s Mr. Stacy’s Mom for me”.

I think it's a reference to Mr. Mom

I'm pretty sure it's intended to mean "man who's married to Stacy's Mom", like the once-common "Mrs. [Husband's Name]".
posted by a car full of lions at 11:31 AM on November 27, 2022 [18 favorites]

I loved Utopia Parkway so much, and when Interstate Managers and Stacy's Mom came out I kind of had the same reaction as Chris Collingwood did. It didn't sound like the same band,.it sounded like something Cake would have done if John McCrea didn't sing in sprechgesang.
posted by 1adam12 at 2:14 PM on November 27, 2022

Mexican Wine / Bright Future in Sales / Stacy's Mom is one of the greatest three-song album openings in the history of recorded rock music, and "SM" should be understood in that context. (But it is the least great of those three, that much is true.)

The idea that this "didn't sound like Fountains of Wayne" is contradicted by "Leave the Biker."

Anyway, the song rules, Adam Schlesinger rules, Chris Collingwood rules, we are lucky to have enjoyed their conjunction even if for just a few years.
posted by escabeche at 2:44 PM on November 27, 2022 [7 favorites]

> I don’t get “it’s Mr. Stacy’s Mom for me”.

I'm pretty sure it's intended to mean "man who's married to Stacy's Mom", like the once-common "Mrs. [Husband's Name]".

It's not uncommon to refer to the husband of a better known spouse as, e.g., Mr. Amy Kloubchar or Mr. Anderson Cooper. Stacy's Mom is certainly the better known of the couple (even if we don't know either of their names.)
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 3:33 PM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

wellifyouinsist: Stacy R and Stacy S unified for one moment, and never again.

In a previous generation , Stacy Q would be fighting alone for “Two of Hearts”.
posted by dr_dank at 3:35 PM on November 27, 2022 [3 favorites]

@fings - thx for the Trash Theory link! I always liked FoW but now I will probably go find a bunch of their stuff I hadn't heard before.

I know this thread isn't about all the awesome power pop out there, but I feel I'd be remiss not to mention another power pop band to FoW fans - the amazingly unsung original Silver Sun from the UK (not the Pickups.) Silver Sun's lead singer & writer James Broad also died awfully. : /

Also the only record I ever heard on walking into a music store playing on the house system where after about 10 seconds I said "I must have this"." There was only the single import cd playing on their system back in 1997, and I had to convince them to sell it to me. : )

turn it up!
posted by bitterkitten at 7:51 PM on November 27, 2022 [3 favorites]

Adam Schlesinger also wrote "That Thing You Do," a not-Beatles Beatles song. It was catchy hooks all the way down with that guy.
posted by panglos at 6:15 AM on November 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

In a time-is-weird moment, I just discovered that the girl who played Stacy in the original video is now just about the same age that Rachel Hunter was when she played Stacy's Mom in the video.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 6:47 AM on November 28, 2022

I always thought FoW were better in theory than in actual listening a lot of the time. So, I like this version better.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:49 AM on November 28, 2022

This is super random, but I grin every time I see Sub-Radio pop up somewhere. Their guitarist's dad graduated from my (very small, very rural, middle-of-nowhere) high school. This excited dad occasionally floods the high school alumni threads with posts about the band. Sub-Radio is absolutely the only thing that shows up in these threads that isn't alumni deaths, high school football updates, or homecoming announcements. His fatherly enthusiasm is adorable.
posted by hessie at 10:31 AM on November 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

I thought it was insulting to call someone a Chad?

I may have really messed up some conversations over the past couple of years 😬
posted by bunderful at 8:43 PM on November 28, 2022

the amazingly unsung original Silver Sun

Thank you! Great album!
posted by kirkaracha at 7:37 AM on November 29, 2022 [2 favorites]

I thought it was insulting to call someone a Chad?

Used to be. Chad (slang) - Wikipedia

It originated in the UK where it was used to describe a particular humorous ad-hoc cartoon.[1] Later, it was employed in Chicago, where it was used as a derogatory description for young, upper-class, urban males.[2] In modern internet slang, the term generally refers to an "alpha"[3] or otherwise hyper-masculine male.[4]

I suspect Sub-Radio picked up the term from the "Virgin vs. Chad" memes from a while back.

The UK cartoon Chad mentioned is better known to Americans as Kilroy. Kilroy was here / Mr. Chad — Wordorigins.org
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:34 AM on November 29, 2022

Further expanding the Stacy's Mom Songomatic Universe, today I heard this by Tiktok singer Will King. He makes some good points viewing the song from an adult perspective.
posted by seasparrow at 6:45 PM on December 14, 2022 [2 favorites]