John Ondrasik had been active in the Los Angelesmusic scene since the 1980s, but did not adopt "Five for Fighting" as his stage name until he signed with EMI Records in 1995. His first album, Message for Albert, came out through EMI in 1997 but EMI's American division closed shortly after Message came out. After EMI's collapse, Ondrasik briefly signed with Island Records, but then "PolyGram, Island’s parent company, merged with Universal and he was lost in the shuffle." Ondrasik then signed with Aware and Columbia Records and began working on America Town. After being dropped from two straight record companies, Ondrasik, then in his mid-30s, believed America Town would be his "swan song." America Town features ten new songs and two songs that were re-recorded from the ill-fated Message album. Ondrasik wrote all of the songs and lyrics. Gregg Wattenburg, the album's producer, played electric guitar throughout the album and provided backing vocals. Dorian Crozier was the drummer for all songs except "Love Song," which saw Robert Medici reprise the role. The bassists were Sheldon Gomberg and Mark Montague.
Critical Reception and Commercial Performance
America Town was met with mixed to positive reviews by critics. AllMusic called it "a bright and clean effort that delivers some heavy themes," and noted that "the focus is clearly on the lyrics, which are well written and effectively sung." Retrospective reviews of the album have been largely positive. "Easy Tonight" was released as the lead single. The second single, "Superman " achieved mainstream success, peaking at number one on the Adult Top 40. Superman was nominated for a Grammy in 2002. Following the success of "Superman," "Easy Tonight" was released as a single a second time, reaching number 18 on the Adult Top 40. Two more singles followed, but neither song replicated the mainstream success of "Superman" and "Easy Tonight." The success of America Town meant that the album had not been Ondrasik's swan song, as he'd anticipated. His third studio album, The Battle for Everything, came out in 2004 and was also certified Platinum. "Superman" was certified Gold by the RIAA in 2005.
