<P> It was one of the first songs to reach the No. 1 spot on the "Most Downloaded Songs" list of the iTunes Music Store . It reached No. 11 in the UK Singles Chart . It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Vocal Pop Performance at the 2004 awards . The single's sales were last estimated at 888,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan, in 2011 . </P> <P> Richard Harrington of The Washington Post dubbed it "nicely naughty ." Ben Greenman, writing for The New Yorker, considered it the "second - catchiest song ever written about a girlfriend's parent," after "Mrs. Robinson". The song ranks No. 350 on Blender's 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born and No. 88 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the' 00s . </P> <P> The music video, directed by Chris Applebaum, features several comedic scenes illustrating the boy's attempts to get closer to Stacy's mother . "We looked at a lot of treatments and some directors were trying to be kind of arty and subtle with it, but Chris Applebaum went completely for the jugular," said Schlesinger . Model Rachel Hunter plays the title role, which she accepted because she was a fan of the band and the song . The group had previously hoped to get Paulina Porizkova for the role . The clip was shot in Los Angeles in late May 2003 . "It was 7 a.m., and there was Rachel Hunter doing a striptease on the kitchen counter," remembered Schlesinger . The video was first sent to television in July 2003 . </P> <P> Fountains of Wayne had asked Ric 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 . There are several references to The Cars in the video: a license plate reads "I ♥ RIC", a reference to Ric; one of the boys in the opening scene has dark hair, sunglasses, and clothes such that he looks like an adolescent version of Ocasek; the trademark Elliot Easton "bouncing" (at approximately 1: 15 into the video) and hairdo as he plays his guitar for The Cars; and the re-creation of the Fast Times scene, which featured The Cars' "Moving in Stereo". 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 . The video reached No. 1 on both MTV's TRL and VH1's VSpot Top 20 Countdown . </P>

Who plays stacey in stacy's mom music video