El grupo fue formado en 1996 por Adam Schlesinger y Chris Collingwood, antiguos compañeros de colegio. Previamente, los dos habían participado en otros grupos: Schlesinger había fundado Ivy en Nueva York y Collingwood The Mercy Buckets en Boston. El nombre del grupo se debe a una tienda de utensilios de jardinería de Wayne, Nueva Jersey, llamada Fountains of Wayne.
A ellos se unieron Brian Young, que había sido batería de The Posies, y Jody Porter, anteriormente en The Belltower. Desde entonces la formación no ha cambiado.
¡Cuatro años de duro trabajo!Este mes de mayo cumplimos cuatro años al aire. Seguimos trabajando en la difusión de este maravilloso instrumento, ¡gracias por participar en nuestra historia!
Prom Theme Chris Collingwood and Adam Schelsinger Fountains of Wayne from "Utopia Parkway"
BG#m7 Here we are at last. The moment soon will pass C#m7Em We'll go our separate ways. We'll vanish in the haze BG#m7 We'll never be the same. We'll forget each other's names. C#m7Em We'll grow old and lose our hair. It's all downhill from there.
EEmBEmB But tonight we'll reach for the stars. We'll rent expensive cars F#Cm7F#C#m7 And dream our dreams of a perfect night F#E-5EB And we'll sing our prom theme
E-5EEmB
(The break is an instrumental with heavy strings that is basically a repeat of the verse and chorus but goes off on a discordant tangent at one point, then comes back to...)
BG#m7 Here we are at last. We're running out of gas. C#m7Em The air is getting thick. The girls are getting sick. BG#m7 We'll pass out on the beach, our keys just out of reach. C#m7Em And soon we'll say goodbye, then we'll work until we die.
EEmBEmB But tonight we feel like we're stars. We'll play our air guitars F#C#m7F#C#m7 'cause we're eighteen. It's a perfect night F#E-5EB to sing our prom theme. E-5EEmB
END
(I'm not sure if E-5 is the right name for that chord. It's an E with a regular fifth and a flatted fifth, first four strings only 0-2-2-3)