“I’ll be the first to admit that we’re the ‘90s version of Cheap Trick or The Knack but the last to admit that it hasn’t been rewarding.” – Kurt Cobain, liner notes to Incesticide, (1992)
If you listened to FM radio in the summer of 1979, you certainly knew who The Knack were thanks to their single ‘My Sharona’ which was the #1 song of 1979. On the back of that hit, their debut album Get the Knack went gold in 13 days and platinum in 7 weeks, one of the fastest risers in the history of record sales.
The Knack initially formed in May 1978. Founding members - vocalist/guitarist Doug Fieger, guitarist Berton Averre, drummer Bruce Gary and bassist Prescott Niles - sculptured a sound which was irresistibly familiar but at the same time unlike anything else which was playing on the radio, and was a nutpunch to disco. Its first performance, June 1, 1978, at the Whisky-A-Go-Go, was a sensation. Their tightly woven musical craftsmanship earned them many rave reviews in the local press. A huge draw in the LA club scene, the Knack played incessantly throughout California 1978 and early 1979. They revitalized live music in many of the older establishments which had been converted to disco dance halls, such as the Troubadour and Starwood with sellout crowds. Rolling Stone magazine followed the still unsigned band through several high profile performance jams with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, The Doors’ Ray Manzarek, Stephen Stills, and Eddie Money. Sets featuring hard driving original music scattered with chestnuts from Buddy Holly, The Kinks and The Doors won them a loyal and enthusiastic following.
Get The Knack was recorded in just eleven days for a mere $17,000. The Knack performed the songs “live” with minimal overdubs, basically hitting the record button and just playing. Rolling Stone magazine heralded them as “the new fab four”. The band’s second single, “Good Girl’s Don’t”, sold well also, reaching number 11 on the Billboard charts. A sold out world tour followed the album’s release, but storm clouds were already forming. Where the Knack was concerned, either you “got it” or you didn’t. Critics of the band fixated on the stark, black and white photo of the album’s cover and performance photo on the back as obvious send ups of The Beatles first album Meet The Beatles. Dissenters labeled the songs as derivative even though the albums sound nothing like the Beatles. Some critics opined that musicians who were this smart and this good couldn’t possibly be serious about pop music and therefore were insincere and manipulative. Regardless, the album would go on to sell 6 million copies.
Their next release …but the little girls understand, went double platinum and had a top-40 hit, but three weeks into the tour to support their third record in 1981, the band broke up. Poof.
They regrouped in 1986 (without Gary), toured off and on up through the first decade of the new millennium, and released a couple more albums. Sadly, Bruce Gary died on August 22, 2006, after a long struggle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Then, during a concert in Las Vegas just prior to Bruce’s death, Doug Feiger began suffering from headaches and became disoriented on stage – even forgetting some of the lyrics to “My Sharona,” the song he had written and performed countless times. Doctors discovered two brain tumors, metastases from the lung cancer he had been treated for two years earlier. He battled the recurring tumors for over three years, continuing to tour with the band, until finally succumbing on Valentine’s Day, 2010. Feiger being the brains and soul of the group, The Knack was officially dead.
My Sharona
The song is inspired by a real person, Sharon Alperin, who Feiger met and became infatuated with when he was 25, and she 17. The two dated for four years after, and she appears on the cover sleeve of the single. Feiger claims he wrote the lyrics in about 15 minutes. The song is an homage to several earlier songs – Averre’s riff is "an inversion of the signature riff" from "Gimme Some Lovin'," a 1967 song by the Spencer Davis Group; The stuttering vocal effect of the repeated "muh muh muh my Sharona" phrase is reminiscent of Roger Daltrey's vocals in the 1965 song "My Generation"; the tom-tom drum rhythm is "just a rewrite" of "Going to a Go-Go," a song from Smokey Robinson and the Miracles from 1965, although Gary added a flam, which was possibly crucial to the song’s success. While that song helped “make” the band, it also made them a punchline and is one of the most parodied songs of all time. Some examples:
"My Bologna" by "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Ayatollah" by Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl
"Pull My Strings" by the Dead Kennedys - The 1980 song used the guitar riff and changed the phrase from "My Sharona" as "My Payola" to satirize the music industry.
"My Scrotum" by Cheech Marin
"9 Coronas" by John Mammoser
"My Menorah" by American Comedy Network "My Toyota" by radio personality Bob Rivers
The song has also been featured in several commercials including "My Chalupa" (Taco Bell), "My Toyota" (Toyota), "My Mohegan" (Mohegan Sun) and "Pepperona" (Hormel)
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?
As an aside, anyone remember “Dr. Death” Jack Kevorkian? Doug Feiger’s brother, Jeffrey, was Kevorkian’s attorney.
Anyone interested in learning more ab out the Knack, and has 80 minutes to kill, here is their rockdoc.
