Stacy's Mom

Authorship of "Stacy's Mom" is credited to Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger; in practice, the two songwriters wrote independently, and agreed to credit both writers on all Fountains of Wayne songs regardless of the actual author. In interviews, Schlesinger took responsibility for the song. "Stacy's Mom" is a power pop, pop-punk, and new wave song. Part of the song's inspiration was a friend with whom Schlesinger had grown up who thought Schlesinger's grandmother was attractive. "One of my best friends, when we were maybe 11 or 12, came to me and announced that he thought my grandmother was hot. And I said, 'Hey, you're stepping over the line,' but at that point in life, I wouldn't put it past anyone," he recalled. He hoped to strike a balance "between humor and personality" with the song. In writing the song, he was hoping to take influence from new wave and power pop music: "I was thinking a little bit about 'Mrs. Robinson' and sonically I was thinking about the Cars, a Rick Springfield sort of thing." He acknowledged that stylistically, the song "owes a debt" to the Cars' "Just What I Needed"; its opening guitar riff is similar. but the band says they performed it in the studio and just "got it right." ==Chart performance==

"Stacy's Mom" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of October 11, 2003, at number 59, making this their first song to appear on that chart. It entered the top 40 the week after by moving 21 spots to number 38 and moved seven spots to number 31 on the week of October 25, 2003. It peaked at number 21 the week of November 21, 2003, and stayed there for two weeks. It stayed on the chart for 17 weeks. It was one of the first songs to reach the No. 1 spot on the "Most Downloaded Songs" list of the iTunes Music Store. It reached No. 11 in the UK Singles Chart. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards. The single's sales were last estimated at 888,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan, in 2011. ==Reception==

Richard Harrington of The Washington Post dubbed it "nicely naughty." The song ranks No. 350 on Blender's "500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born" and No. 88 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the '00s". ==Music video==

The music video, directed by Chris Applebaum, whose best friend and love interest (Shane Haboucha) is attracted to her mother, mentioning times she caught his attention: by the pool (where Stacy is shown wearing red, heart-shaped sunglasses as a reference to the poster of the 1962 film Lolita), receiving a massage on the lawn and during an imaginary strip tease in the dining room. It features several sexual innuendos such as wet dreams and adolescent gratification. By the end of the video, Stacy walks in on her unnamed friend in the bathroom as he watches her mother wearing a red bikini in the backyard pool (a direct reference to Fast Times at Ridgemont High). It closes on the door with an "Ocupado" sign hanging from the doorknob and Stacy laughing. "We looked at a lot of treatments and some directors were trying to be kind of arty and subtle with it, but Chris Applebaum went completely for the jugular," said Schlesinger. The group had previously hoped to get Paulina Porizkova (Ocasek's then-wife) for the role. The clip was shot in Los Angeles in late May 2003. The video was first sent to television in July 2003. Fountains of Wayne had asked Ocasek to be in the video for the song. Schlesinger explains that while Ocasek claimed that he "politely declined", he actually just never responded to the request. There are several references to the Cars in the video: a license plate reads "I ♥ RIC", a reference to Ocasek; one of the boys in the opening scene has dark hair, sunglasses, 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 a scene from the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, 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. The video reached No. 1 on VH1's VSpot Top 20 Countdown. ==Track listings==

Australian and European CD single • "Stacy's Mom" – 3:16 • "Trains and Boats and Planes" – 3:02 • "Elevator Up" – 4:02 • "Stacy's Mom" (video) – 3:16 ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==

In 2011, pop punk band Bowling for Soup released a cover version of "Stacy's Mom" as a B-side to their single "I've Never Done Anything Like This" (featuring Kay Hanley). The cover version came about because the original Fountains of Wayne song was often misattributed to Bowling for Soup. The song was misidentified as a Bowling for Soup song on YouTube and other video sites. In 2011, they recorded and released a cover version of the song. Reddick said that by finally releasing their own version of the song, "I’ve basically just taken care of a large part of the population that's been wrong for years, and I've made them right." ==In popular culture==

The song was included on the setlist for Guitar Hero: Van Halen as a guest act, and was included as DLC for Rock Band 4. It also appeared in the 4th episode of season 1 of the television series Psych, "Woman Seeking Dead Husband: Smokers Okay, No Pets" in 2006. The song was parodied on The Howard Stern Show to mock Wack Pack character Hanzi (Imran Kahn). It has also been performed by Postmodern Jukebox ft. Casey Abrams. It has appeared in Me Him Her (2015) and Art School Confidential (2006). A cover of the song by the Northeastern University pep band has become an unofficial theme song for the Northeastern Huskies men's ice hockey team, and has frequent performances at the annual Beanpot. At each game, the pep band plays the song during a stoppage of play with the fan sections continuing to sing through the chorus without accompaniment once gameplay begins again. In 2021, heavy metal band Ice Nine Kills released a parody titled "Jason's Mom" about Pamela Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise. Washington, D.C. indie-pop band Sub-Radio released a parody titled "Stacy's Dad" on TikTok in 2022 that recorded 10.2 million views before the end of that year. In 2024, Boston, Massachusetts pop-punk band Walk On Mars released a parody of their own titled “Stacy’s Side” that reiterated the storyline from the original song, but from Stacy’s perspective. ==References==