Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Hot track: My Sharona
Year: 1979
Chart Position: 6
Signing with Capitol after a feeding frenzy of label offers, the Knack (Doug Fieger, vocals/guitar; Berton Averre, lead guitar; Prescott Niles, bass; and Bruce Gary, drums) released their debut, Get the Knack, in 1979. With its leadoff single, My Sharona, the Knack climbed both the album and singles charts, gained wide commercial acceptance, and regenerated the power pop scene that had laid dormant for half a decade.
The Knack’s image, or lack thereof, was often unfavourably compared to the Beatles, but their music relied on the rough punchiness of the Kinks and the Who rather than the Fab Four. Their refusal to do interviews turned critics against them, and by the time they released their second album, ...But the Little Girls Understand, less than a year after the debut, the backlash had already begun.
The Knack began a quick spiral that they were never to recover from. Due to the appearance of My Sharona on soundtracks and compilations, the Knack were thrown in the midst of a revival of sorts, reuniting and playing the occasional show in LA. Bruce Gary temporarily returned to the fold, but by the time the Knack released their second “reunion” album, Zoom, during the Summer of 1998, the drum stool had been filled by Terry Bozzio.
In 2005, The Knack made an appearance on the TV programme Hit Me Baby One More Time. The Knack continue to write and record new songs, and they play concerts several times per month. As of August 2006, the band has been on hiatus owing to surgery on Doug Fieger. The Knack’s original drummer Bruce Gary passed away from lymphoma on August 22, 2006. He was 55.
