The band's name was taken from the name of a lawn-ornament store in Wayne, New Jersey, not far from Montclair, New Jersey. That city is the hometown of the band's bassist and cofounder Adam Schlesinger (the store has since gone out of business). According to Songfacts, there were prominent fountains there.
The concept of the band was formed by Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood. The two first met as freshmen at Williams College and began playing music together in various groups. The two eventually went their separate ways with Collingwood forming the Mercy Buckets in Boston and Schlesinger forming Ivy in New York City. The duo initially set out to work together in the early 90s under various band monikers (including ones named "Pinwheel" and "The Wallflowers"), and recorded a full album's worth of demos in 1993. Although never released, the "Pinwheel" demos are widely bootlegged by fans and display a very different (yet still earnest) version of the pair's songwriting, though several songs from this period would be re-tooled and appear on later releases.
After failing to get their project off the ground, the two met up once again during the mid-90s and formed Fountains of Wayne. A demo eventually landed the two a deal with Atlantic Records and in 1996 they released their self titled debut. The album spawned the singles Radiation Vibe and Sink To The Bottom which received airplay, but it was Schlesinger's song entitled That Thing You Do! which became a hit being used as the lead track for the Tom Hanks film of the same name. "That Thing You Do!" also brought Schlesinger an Oscar nomination and an RIAA gold certification for the hit soundtrack.
Along with guitarist Jody Porter and drummer Brian Young, the band toured the world extensively behind the album playing alongside bands such as The Smashing Pumpkins and The Lemonheads.
In 1999, the band returned with their second album, Utopia Parkway, a loosely-based concept album about life in the American suburbs in the late 1990s. Unfortunately, a much-changed radio climate left little room in playlists for Fountains of Wayne's snarky power-pop, and the album, along with its three singles Denise, Red Dragon Tattoo, and Troubled Times, sank without much notice. The following year, the band was mostly quiet, contributing a song each to a soundtrack and a compilation (Too Cool for School to the "Scary Movie" soundtrack and California Sex Lawyer to the third installment of the International Pop Overthrow series). They were dropped by Atlantic soon thereafter.
The band spent much of the early 2000s in seclusion, occasionally rejoining to record or play an occasional gig, but mostly Schlessinger was focusing on work with Ivy and Collingwood founded an alt.country band near his Western Massachusetts home called The Gay Potatoes. In addition, the band wrote and performed the theme song to the popular Comedy Central program "Crank Yankers," and contributed a cover of The Kinks "Better Days" to a tribute album. The song was also later featured prominently in a scene of the 2004 remake of "The Manchurian Candidate." During this time, the band's stature only grew in indie pop circles, raising expectations high for the release of their next album.
Welcome Interstate Managers, Fountains of Wayne's third record and first for Virgin, was released in June of 2003. Preceeded by the single and video for the Cars-ish Stacy's Mom, the song became a surprise top 20 hit on the strength of its video--a send-up of 1980s teen comedies like "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"--which starred Rachel Hunter as Stacy's Mom. The video went into heavy rotation on MTV, pushing the album to become Fountains of Wayne's most successful with sales exceeding 400,000 units.
Like most bands who have a major hit driven by a clever video, follow-up singles did not fare as well. Despite a similarly-clever video for Mexican Wine, the single failed to take off after MTV banned the video due to a scene where two underage girls lip-synch the words to the chorus, a reference to drinking tequila. Third single Hey Julie initially made only a minor dent on AAA and Hot AC format stations, but it was later featured in "Scrubs" and other TV shows and grew in stature over time, becoming something of a sleeper hit. During this time, the band also wrote a series of short, almost They Might Be Giants-styled songs for a short-lived VH1 TV series titled "Hey Joel!," which was written by critic Joel Stein. The show was canceled before it aired in the United States and the songs were never released.
The song named "Red Dragon Tattoo" was also featured in the 2004 series "Kingdom Hospital", based on a novel by Stephen King, that aired on BBC.
In 2005, the band issued the 2-disc Out-of-State Plates, a compilation rounding up the band's various import-only B-sides as well as several new songs. Maureen was released as a single yet received little attention.
The band's fourth proper album, titled Traffic and Weather, was released April 3, 2007. One abandoned track from these sessions, a novelty throwaway titled Monster House that was written for the movie of the same name but not used, was leaked in advance of the album's release via the band's MySpace page. "Traffic and Weather" met with typically strong reviews but fewer sales than its predecessor, although the single and video for Someone to Love made a minor impact.
In early 2009, the band embarked on a small tour where they began to debut some new songs from an as-yet-untitled fifth album. Progress was slow, however, and other than some scattered shows the band dropped almost entirely out of view for two years. In late 2010, the band announced that they were now without a label but that they had completed their as-yet-untitled fifth album, which they were hoping to release sometime in 2011 once they found a new label. During this time they gave away one new free song via their website. Song of the Passaic was written for an NPR segment using a poem about New Jersey's famed, industrial Passaic River.
In May 2011, the band has announced that their fifth album, Sky Full of Holes will be released on August 1st, 2011 on Lojinx in Europe, August 2nd, 2011 on YepRoc in North America and on Warner in Japan. Two singles were released in advance of the album itself: Richie and Ruben in May 2011, followed by Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart the following month. Like their previous releases, the album garnered critical praise from a variety of publications. Jill Menze of 'Billboard' called the release "excellent", describing it as "a new minimal sound with a poppy, folk-leaning flair."
After a six-month tour in support of the album, the band quietly went defunct in favor of side projects. Although they never officially broke up, the band has been completely inactive since sometime in 2012.
On April 1st, 2020, co-founder Adam Schlessinger passed away due to complications from COVID-19 at the age of 52.
Maureen
Fountains of Wayne Lyrics
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(Uh uh uh uh, uh uh uh uh)
She's telling me about her spring vacation
(Uh uh uh uh, uh uh uh uh)
She's not leaving much to the imagination
(Uh uh uh uh, uh uh uh uh)
She's giving me way too much information
(Uh uh uh uh, uh uh uh uh)
Maureen
You don't know what you do to me
I know you won't be true to me
The least that you can do for me
Is keep it to yourself
I'm so sorry, I don't mean to shout
It's just that I can do without
The details of your days and nights and your thoughts and dreams
Maureen, Maureen, Maureen, Maureen, Maureen
D-do you know what I mean?
D-do you know what I mean?
D-do you know what I mean?
She calls me up at ten past midnight
(Uh uh uh uh, uh uh uh uh)
'Cause she and some guy just had some big fight
(Uh uh uh uh, uh uh uh uh)
And I say, "Well, maybe he's just not all that bright"
(Uh uh uh uh, uh uh uh uh)
She tells me it's not his brain that she likes
(Uh uh uh uh, uh uh uh uh)
M-M-M-M-M-Maureen
You don't know what you do to me
I know you won't be true to me
The least that you can do for me
Is keep it to yourself
I'm so sorry, I don't mean to shout
But really, I can do without
The details of your days and nights and your thoughts and dreams
Maureen, Maureen, Maureen, Maureen
I know you think I'm just a friend
But can we please just put an end
To all the graphic imagery that you insist on feeding me?
I can't accept I'm not the one
Who's getting to have all the fun
And maybe that's what friends are for
But I just can't take it anymore
M-M-M-M-M-Maureen
You don't know what you do to me
I know you won't be true to me
The least that you can do for me
Is keep it to yourself
I'm so sorry, I don't mean to shout
But really, I can do without
The details of your days and nights and your thoughts and dreams
Can you keep it light?
Can you keep it clean?
Maureen, Maureen, Maureen, Maureen, Maureen
"Fountains of Wayne's" song "Maureen" speaks about a girl who tells the singer about all the intimate details of her life, and he complains that she gives him too much information. The singer picks up Maureen outside the station, and the girl tells him about her spring vacation without leaving much to the imagination. The singer continually repeats that she gives him way too much information. Even when she calls him up in the middle of the night to tell him she had a fight with her boyfriend, the singer just wants her to keep it to herself. The singer addresses Maureen, telling her that he knows she won't be true to him, so she should keep it to herself.
The song highlights the longstanding trope of unrequited love. In this case, the singer wants to be with Maureen, but she has no interest in him. The song is an example of the quintessential power-pop musical style that "Fountains of Wayne" was known for. The song has catchy melodies that grab the listener's attention and stick in their head. It's fast-paced and upbeat, with a strong rhythm section, snappy percussion, and an excellent guitar performance.
Line by Line Meaning
I pick her up outside the station
I go get her at the train station.
She's telling me about her spring vacation
She is talking about the trips she took this spring.
She's not leaving much to the imagination
She's revealing every detail she could to me, nothing is left to the imagination.
She's giving me way too much information
I'm getting so much information that it's becoming too much to handle.
Maureen
Addressing the lady as Maureen
You don't know what you do to me
You don’t understand the effect you have on me.
I know you won't be true to me
I understand that you won’t be loyal to me.
The least that you can do for me
The least that you can do to me.
Is keep it to yourself
Please, It’s better if you keep it to yourself.
I'm so sorry, I don't mean to shout
I’m not shouting at you, and I feel sorry.
It's just that I can do without
It’s just that I can go on without it.
The details of your days and nights and your thoughts and dreams
The specifics of your nights, days, thoughts and dreams.
Maureen, Maureen, Maureen, Maureen, Maureen
Repeating the name Maureen
D-do you know what I mean?
Do you understand what I'm saying?
She calls me up at ten past midnight
She calls me late at night when it’s already ten minutes past midnight.
'Cause she and some guy just had some big fight
She and some other man just had a big argument.
And I say, "Well, maybe he's just not all that bright"
I reply, "Maybe he’s not that smart".
She tells me it's not his brain that she likes
She tells me it’s not his intelligence that she’s attracted to.
I know you think I'm just a friend
I understand you believe that we are just friends.
But can we please just put an end
Can we just stop this?
To all the graphic imagery that you insist on feeding me?
To all the vivid descriptions that you place?
I can't accept I'm not the one
I can’t come to terms with the fact that I am not the one you are into.
Who's getting to have all the fun
The one who is having fun
And maybe that's what friends are for
Maybe that's what friends are meant for
But I just can't take it anymore
I can't handle it anymore.
Can you keep it light?
Can you keep it casual?
Can you keep it clean?
Can you refrain from detailing?
Maureen, Maureen, Maureen, Maureen, Maureen
Addressing Maureen in repetition.
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Peermusic Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: CARRIE LUZ RODRIGUEZ, JOHN POPPER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind