Carl Cafarelli is a gentleman who writes me from time to time, occasionally about comics but more often about popular music — a topic on which he seems to be rather well-versed. He just wrote this to me…
It's worth noting that the COVID-benefit reunion of That Thing You Do! participants was prompted in large part by the death of the title song's author Adam Schlesinger. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were among the first famous people reported to have contracted the disease in the early days of the pandemic; Schlesinger was among the first celebrities killed by COVID.
Schlesinger's death devastated our rockin' pop community. He was well-respected and well-liked for his work with Fountains Of Wayne, Ivy, Tinted Windows, for his production of the Monkees' 2016 album Good Times!, and for "That Thing You Do!," the title song from what some of my peers and I consider our all-time favorite movie.
I don't want to get into the habit of sending you links to my blog — I do indeed recognize that you have more important things to do — but this is what I wrote when Adam died. It was part of a blog series (and potential book) called The Greatest Record Ever Made!, dedicated to the notion that an infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns.
This one hurt.
Thank you for this, Carl. I didn't know much about Mr. Schlesinger but based on what's in my e-mailbox at the moment, you aren't the only person who felt a great sense of loss when he went away. I'm going to read more of your blog posts and see what else is there. Others may want to join me.