Doug Fieger died this week at age 57. Fieger is best known as the lead singer for the Knack and co-writer with guitarist Berton Averre of the hit “My Sharona”.
“My Sharona” was released in June 1979 and promptly took over summer radio. It's one of those songs that everybody professes to hate, yet becomes not only a hugely successful single, but a pop culture touchstone.
Fieger wrote the lyrics about a real Sharona he was “interested” in who happened to be quite a bit younger than he was. Let's just say there is a subtext to the song that might raise eyebrows today. We were just kids at the time and didn't care about any of that. We only knew that the song was about being infatuated with a girl and that it had a good beat.
Everybody had a “Sharona”.......I never even spoke to mine. (For the record, we were the same age!)
For me, I like the song, but it's not their best tune. I'm afraid that the Knack, like a lot of one-hit-wonders, became prisoners of their own success. Sure, if they had a decent contract (a very big if), Fieger and Averre could potentially live off the song for the rest of their lives. But once a band has a very big, iconic hit single like “Sharona”, it's very difficult to be taken seriously with subsequent material.
The band released several albums and collections over the years filled with reliably quality power pop.
I never got a chance to see them play, they were scheduled for the Boardwalk a couple of years ago, but had to back out due to Fieger's illness. When I hear of a prominent person becoming seriously ill, I often think...”Oh, they'll pull out of it”. Sometimes they don't.
Fieger was quoted in the Detroit News saying “I've had 10 great lives. And I expect to have some more. I don't feel cheated in any way, shape or form.”
RIP Doug Fieger 1952-2010
No comments:
Post a Comment