FEATURE:
Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure
The Knack – My Sharona
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MAYBE some would argue…
that this 1979 hit is not a guilty pleasure at all and it is one that is perfectly accepted and loved around the world! I would argue against the assumption that everyone approves of the song. I personally The Knack’s My Sharona and I feel it is a great song that should be played more! I do feel there are sectors and stations that do not play it because they think the song is a bit corny or too much. It is another one of those songs that you only hear on certain radio stations; some of the ‘cooler stations’ only break it out once in a while. I have also seen My Sharona feature on some lists of musical guilty pleasures, but this is a track with a lot to love. Maybe The Knack are a one-hit wonder, in the sense that people can’t really name any other songs they put out, but there is nothing wrong with that. I love the L.A. band and, whilst My Sharona is their signature tune, the fact they have enjoyed a long career is testament to their strength and popularity. It is a real shame that The Knack’s lead singer, Doug Fieger, died in 2010. I think his performance elevates the song from something that could have been lame and cheesy to a song that is buoyant and bursting with energy! The track is said to have derived when Fieger – who was twenty-five at the time – met a seventeen-year-old Sharona Alperin. The two would soon date one another; this intoxicating muse compelled more than the one song from Fieger.
It is obvious that the effect Alperin had on him was instant and, having fallen for her straight away, we got this marvellous song. Maybe My Sharona doesn’t seem that romantic, but I love its spirit and the fact that it gets lodged in the head! Together with Berton Averre – The Knack’s lead guitarist -, a classic was born and written. Averre was not keen on Sharona Alperin’s name being used in the song but Fieger, smitten and certain, said that it had to be in there! Apparently, My Sharona was written in fifteen minutes…and one can imagine Fieger pouring these words out and excitingly working out the track with his bandmate. Fieger and Alperin did get engaged but, sadly, broke up. They did remain friends, and I can imagine Fieger’s death had quite an impact on his former fiancée. Like a few of the songs I have included in this feature, My Sharona was a massive-selling single and remains this enormous thing. It was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, representing one-million copies sold – it was Capitol Records' fastest gold-status debut single since The Beatles' I Want to Hold Your Hand in 1964! My Sharona was taken from the 1979 album, Get the Knack - which has some other good tracks, but nothing that rivals My Sharona. It is surprising that the song opens the second side of the album, as I would have put it right near the top!
Maybe the band felt that their best song might need to be lower down the order so that you sort of build up to it. One can draw parallels to a song like My Sharona and the material The Beatles and other British Invasion bands were releasing in the 1960s. There is this instant hooks that gets into the brain, and My Sharona sports a huge, singalong chorus. Maybe some feel that the song has not aged too well and it is one of those generational things. Whether you believe in guilty pleasures or not, I think that My Sharona should certainly be played more and considered one of the best singles from the late-1970s. When Quincy Jones was making Thriller alongside Michael Jackson in the early-1980s, the producer wanted a Rock song similar to My Sharona included. Jackson then went on to write Beat It – arguably an even better song. In 2008, My Sharona was ranked in wo Billboard fiftieth anniversary charts. The song took on a new role this year during the pandemic, where the surviving band members modified the title to Bye, Corona!. I am going to leave things in a second but, just before, I want to bring in an interview where My Sharona’s inspiration, Sharona Alperin, was asked about the song. We discover more about Alperin and Fieger meeting in this article from NPR:
“Sharona Alperin is now a real estate agent in Los Angeles. But she still remembers when she was introduced to Doug Fieger, by his girlfriend.
"I was about 16 or 17 at the time," Alperin told host Guy Raz. "He was nine years older than me. And within a month or two later, he told me that, 'I'm in love with you, you're my soulmate, you're my other half, we're going to be together one day.' And I was madly in love with my boyfriend at the time, and so it took a year for me to leave my boyfriend."
Alperin remembers the day when she first heard "My Sharona" — before she and Fieger were an item.
"One day, on my lunch break from my clothing store, I went to their [The Knack's] rehearsal," she says. "And I saw maybe Burton [Averee] or Doug [Fieger] say, 'Should we play it? Should we play it? All right, let's play it for her.' And I sat down. Cut to: I'm driving back to the clothing store, and I'm thinking, 'Did I just hear a song with my name in it?'"
Fieger and Alperin eventually got married to separate people, but they remained in touch. Fieger died on Valentine's Day this year, but Alperin says she went to see him frequently in his final months.
"A lot of his idols, people that meant so much to him in the music industry, came to pay their respects to him," she says. "And it was really beautiful”.
I love the story behind My Sharona and the fact there was this very close bond between Alperin and Fieger. It is a shame that some people think that My Sharona is one of those throwaways or it is a song that you shouldn’t really admit to loving. It is this song that sold in enormous levels in 1979, and it has continued to be featured in the media/best of polls since its release. In such a bad year, I think the drive and addictive nature of the song should be spun more on radio and, rather than lumping it in with songs that are only good in the right light, we need to hail the majesty of The Knack’s slice of gold! Even though the man who conceived the song is no longer with us, My Sharona will…
IN THIS PHOTO: The Knack in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Ebet Roberts
KEEP living on.