Whatever Happened to The Knack, the ‘My Sharona’ One-Hit Wonder?

Whatever happened to The Knack, the late ’70s one-hit wonder that was seemingly on top of the music world with their breakout single “My Sharona”?

About The Knack and “My Sharona”

The Knack formed in Los Angeles in 1978, with singer-guitarist Doug Fieger leading a group that featured lead guitarist Berton Averre, bassist Prescott Niles and drummer Bruce Gary. The band issued their debut album, Get the Knack, on June 11, 1979, with “My Sharona” being officially released as a single the following week on June 18.

The song shot up to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 where it remained for six weeks and it would later be proclaimed by Billboard magazine as the No. 1 song for the year on their 1979 Billboard Top Singles year-end chart. At the time, it was Capitol Records’ fastest-selling single since The Beatles‘ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in the 1960s. It’s since surpassed over 10 million copies sold.

As for the muse for the song, Fieger revealed that it was inspired by his 17-year-old girlfriend Sharona Alperin. Their blossoming relationship helped to inspire the singer over a two-month long songwriting binge.

In the liner notes for the album, Fieger recalled, “It was like getting hit in the head with a baseball bat; I fell in love with her instantly. And when that happened, it sparked something and I started writing a lot of songs feverishly in a short amount of time.”

The track was reportedly written in 15 minutes and mixed in another 15 minutes.

Fieger and Alperin were a couple for four years and even got engaged at one point, but never married. And in 2005, the vocalist revealed that they had remained great friends over the years.

The Knack, “My Sharona”

What Happened After “My Sharona”?

“My Sharona” helped propel The Knack to instant stardom. Get the Knack topped the Billboard 200 Album chart and despite “My Sharona” often being considered a “one-hit wonder,” the second single from the record, “Good Girls Don’t,” actually fared quite well and peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

But, as tends to happen with things that get hugely popular over a short timespan, there was some pretty intense backlash against The Knack as well.

A good portion of the pushback on the group surrounded their marketing. The debut album was titled Get The Knack and even the cover art seem to mirror that of The Beatles. Add in the band’s retro imagery and sound and the group were often ridiculed as a Beatles rip-off band.

Fieger acknowledged the Beatles comparisons, sharing that it was their intent to hopefully capture the spirit and mania of the British Invasion period and bring it to a new generation of listeners. But a highly visible marketing campaign led some to feel they were a manufactured band and their lack of public presence through interviews or TV appearances didn’t do anything to dispel that notion.

The group also faced blowback over a perceived misogynistic and arrogant view towards women, with women’s rights group protesting The Knack’s views about romance.

Meanwhile, San Francisco artist Hugh Brown launched a campaign after the oversaturation of “My Sharona” at radio stations, which he dubbed “Nuke the Knack.”

“They were so over-hyped, I thought I’ll do something that’s kind of obnoxious and kind of funny,” Brown said in the Getting the Knack documentary. “Then it just snowballed.”

What Happened After Their First Album?

The backlash proved hard to overcome.

The Knack’s second album, …But the Little Girls Understand, arrived in 1980 and proved to be a commercial failure. The album topped out at No. 15 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart, The lead single “Baby Talks Dirty” barely cracked the Top 40 at No. 38, while the follow-up single “Can’t Put a Price on Love” topped out at No. 62 on the Billboard Hot 100.

A third album, Round Trip in 1981, fared even worse. The album peaked at No. 93 with the single “Pay the Devil” topping out at No. 67. Amidst the touring of that album, internal tensions led to Fieger’s exit from the group on New Year’s Eve.

The Knack initially tried to continue with new singer Stephen ‘Mac’ McNally under the moniker The Game, while Fieger formed a new band called Doug Fieger’s Taking Chances.

The Knack Come Back

After dissolving in 1982, the band initially reunited in 1986 to play a show for a talent booker who first booked them back in 1978. The reunion then led to additional gigs before Bruce Gary bowed out of the band in 1989.

By 1990, the lineup then signed a new record deal and decided to give it a fresh go. They released Serious Fun in 1991 and the single “Rocket of Love” received some AOR radio airplay in the U.S. and charted in Canada.

But after The Knack’s label dissolved in 1992, another split followed until the band saw a second life for “My Sharona” when it was used in the Reality Bites soundtrack. That led to a Tonight Show appearance and got the band back together to work on new music for a 1996 compilation album where they covered Badfinger’s “No Matter What.”

READ MORE: Whatever Happened to 1990s One-Hit Wonder, Harvey Danger?

The next decade saw the band once again recording and working together on 1998’s Zoom and 2001’s Normal as the Next Guy. But things took a turn for the worse in 2006 when Fieger became disoriented during a Las Vegas performance. The musician was diagnosed with a pair of brain tumors.

Though he underwent surgery and was able to return to the concert stage, health issues continued to plague the singer over the next few years and he died on Feb. 14, 2010 after battling both brain and lung cancer. Fieger’s death essentially ended The Knack.

What Happened to the Other Members of The Knack?

Upon their first split, the other three members of The Knack at one point formed a band called The Front with actor Steven Bauer serving as their vocalist.

Outside of The Knack, drummer Bruce Gary became an in-demand session musician. He worked on recordings for Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Bette Midler, Sheryl Crow, Albert King and John Lee Hooker. In addition to his work as a session musician, he also worked as a producer overseeing an album for The Ventures and co-producing some archival recordings of Jimi Hendrix. Gary passed in 2006 at the age of 55 from lymphoma.

Berton Averre remained in music outside of The Knack. He became a vocal arranger and during the 1990s began exploring his love of musical theater. He’s co-written productions of The Party’s Over, Jungle Man! and Robin Hood: The Untold Story. He also co-wrote 2009’s Setup and Punch and 2011’s Vrooom!

Prescott Niles has spent much of the last decade playing with ’80s rockers Missing Persons as well as with Mike Pinera’s Classic Rock All-Stars.