Stacy's Mom
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"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.
Music
"Stacy's Mom" was written by Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger. Stylistically it is power pop. It begins with an intro inspired by (but not the same as) the intro to "Just What I Needed" by The Cars. Overall it presents the listener with a very accessible melody starting with a I - IV - V - IV 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.[1]
Subject matter
"Stacy's Mom" is about a boy's adolescent fantasies about a female friend's mother. The boy spends time with the friend in an attempt to get closer to her mother.
Music video
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"Stacy's Mom" became a hit widely due to its music video, directed by Chris Applebaum, which features several comedic scenes illustrating the boy's attempts to get closer to the object of his affections and fantasies, played by model Rachel Hunter. In the video, Stacy is played by Gianna Distenca and the boy is played by Shane Haboucha. There is a scene which shows Stacy tanning while wearing red heart-shaped sunglasses, very similar to those on the promotional picture for the 1962 film Lolita. It also pays homage to the 1982 movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High; near the end of the video, the boy begins to masturbate by the bathroom window after staring at Stacy's mother come out of the pool in her red two-piece swimsuit. Before he finishes, Stacy opens the door, ignoring a sign saying Ocupado (Spanish for "occupied"), catches him in the act and then, as in the movie, quickly closes the door laughing, showing that Stacy might be thinking that he is masturbating to her image.
Influences
Adam Schlesinger says "Stacy's Mom" was a tribute to The Cars, which explains its intro (similar to "Just What I Needed"). Cars frontman Ric Ocasek thought that the intro was a sample from "Just What I Needed"[2] 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.[3]
There remain several references to The Cars in the song's 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" and hairdo (at approximately 1:15 into the video) as he plays his guitar for the CARS; and the recreation of the Fast Times scene, which featured The Cars' "Moving In Stereo". The narrator stutters on the final words of various lines, similar to the stuttering style employed by Ocasek. 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, in homage to a number of Cars' album covers.[4]
Spoofs and commercialization
A Christian parody band called ApologetiX released a song named "JC's Mom" (on their album New And Used Hits) describing Jesus Christ's mother, Mary, having a growing son, and his journey as a boy.
In 2005, "Stacy's Mom" was used in a commercial for Dr Pepper. In this case, the boys (part of a local youth sports team) adore "Stacy's mom" because she brings the desired soft drink.
In 2005 the TV series Bones episode 1x03 "A Boy in the Tree" there was a relationship between a student (Tucker) and the mother of a fellow student. When being questioned by the FBI the daughter of the mother said: "Tucker was all Stacy's Mom about it". (This happened just over 36 mins into the episode)
A spoof of the song was made about Harry Potter, called Harry's Wand.
An episode of Hannah Montana's title is "Lilly's Mom Has Got It Going On" after the hook "Stacy's Mom has got it going on".
In 2008, Playboy did a spoof, "Bristol's Mom"[5], about Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin.
References
- ^ Fountains of Wayne - "Stacy's Mom" sheet music. Hal Leonard. 2003. pp. pp. 1-7. UPC: 7399952767.
{{cite book}}:|pages=has extra text (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ [1] Fountains Of Wayne US, "February 8, 2006 - Ric Ocasek"
- ^ Interview with Adam Schlesinger, May 2007
- ^ "Left of The Dial". Retrieved 2006-08-16.
- ^ See Youtube [2]