The Knack’s Doug Fieger Dies

Doug Fieger, the lead singer and guitarist from The Knack died last weekend after a battle with cancer. He was 57. He dies at his home in Woodland Hills , California.
The Knack will of course be remembered best for one song – the remarkable My Sharona, a perfect and perfectly timed slice of power pop that captured the hearts and minds of a generation. The Knack were never able to match the success of that one song, which has perhaps lead them to be under-rated as a band.
But The Knack and Doug Fieger could be remembered for more than just My Sharona.
Doug Fieger was a native of Detroit and it was there that he formed his first bands. Fieger’s including  Sky, which released two albums with RCA . Even that early band had a Brit-pop flavour which set them apart from the Detroit sound of The Stooges and the MC5.
“I’m from Detroit, but we weren’t representative of that era,” Fieger recalled during a 2003 Free Press interview. “Because the sound of what we did was something different. But to the credit of the scene, everything was allowed. We were totally accepted.”
Fieger took that with him when he moved to LA and formed The Knack.
Longtime friend David Weiss, was a fellow Los Angeles transplant from Detroit, was saw Fieger 10 days prior to his death and was recently quoted in a Detroit newspaper.
“I think both of us thought it might be our farewell,” said Weiss, who plays with the band Was (Not Was). “He was resigned, but with the same sort of philosophical calm that he had been showing — this kind of steely determination. He never let his own troubles dictate the moment.”
“I always believed he was really channeling Lennon-McCartney every time he opened his mouth onstage,” said Weiss. “But I also think a single like ‘My Sharona’ is every bit a Detroit record as anything else, with that bad-ass beat, that kind of direct sensuality. It was pretty hardball stuff for a band that was three-quarters Los Angeles and one part Detroit.”
When The Knack exploded off the back of My Sharona, Fieger seemed ready and rapidly embraced the pop star fame.
“I don’t know where he got it from, but he was self-educated. guy who went from high school to Hollywood without passing go,” stated Weiss.  “He had this passion combined with a blind confidence that he was going to be a star.”
The bands debut album Get The Knack was a cracker, even beyond My Sharona. I still remember listening to it as a young teenager  and the hit single wasn’t even my favorite song. That honour was reserved for Good Girls Don’t!
Remember the album?
Side 1
1. “Let Me Out” (Doug Fieger, Berton Averre) – 2:20
2. “Your Number or Your Name” (Fieger, Averre) – 2:57
3. “Oh Tara” (Fieger) – 3:04
4. “(She’s So) Selfish” (Fieger, Averre) – 4:30
5. “Maybe Tonight” (Fieger) – 4:00
6. “Good Girls Don’t” (Fieger) – 3:07

Side 2

1. “My Sharona” (Fieger, Averre) – 4:52
2. “Heartbeat” (Bob Montgomry, Norman Petty) – 2:11
3. “Siamese Twins (The Monkey and Me)” (Fieger, Averre) – 3:25
4. “Lucinda” (Fieger, Averre) – 4:00
5. “That’s What the Little Girls Do” (Fieger) – 2:41
6. “Frustrated” (Fieger, Averre) – 3:51
Get The Knack was produced by Mike Chapman and released in June 1979. The album went platinum (one million units sold) in just two months and spent five weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.  My Sharona was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks and #1 on Billboard’s Top Pop Singles of 1979 year end chart. The LP also featured the second single “Good Girls Don’t” which peaked at #11 on The Billboard Hot 100 chart. Other cuts that received significant airplay on AOR radio were: “(She’s So) Selfish” and “Frustrated”.
The Knack didn’t conclude business after Get The Knack. They went on to release a series of albums but none that reached the heights of their debut.
These were:
# …But The Little Girls Understand (1980)
# Round Trip (1981)
# Serious Fun (1991)
# Zoom (1998)
# Normal As The Next Guy (2001)
# Re-Zoom (Zoom with Bonus Tracks) (2003)