When I first heard ' My Sharona ' I flipped. What a great rock song and a real blast of fresh air in those days when disco ruled the airwaves. And it went on to be the biggest hit of the year. Bought the album ' Get The Knack ' and was pleasantly suprised to find it was a fine record of melodic power pop and rock. Enjoyed it very much . But then there was a almost immediate negative backlash about The Knack and it seems they could not recover from it and spiraled nose first into the dirt. Never really understood what happened here.
Bad management and a huge public backlash against Fieger trying to seem like he was John Lennon. People HATED that.
According to Wikipedia.. However, the band's rise to the top of the charts also precipitated a backlash. Capitol's packaging of Get the Knackincluded a perceived cover likeness to Meet the Beatles![1] with the record's center label being the same design and style as the Beatles' early 1960s LPs. Coupled with the band's "retro" 1960s look and pop/rock sound, the company's stylings led detractors to accuse them of being Beatles rip-offs,[1] which the band and their record company denied. Fieger acknowledged the band's likeness to the Beatles, claiming that it was their intention to present the Knack as a replica of the British Invasion. He went on to mention how fans of the Knack had not been able to experience the times of the 1960s, and that it was wrong to deny them the privilege of experiencing something similar.[6] Critics fought back, claiming the band was imposing inadequate memories of the 1960s on those who didn't know better. Soon, as Get the Knack became more popular, the band was met with hostility from other artists who felt the intense marketing of the band was invalidating their own efforts of invoking the 1960 sound.[6] This perception, and the perception that the object of some of the Knack's songs were teenaged girls (subsequently acknowledged when the band were years older), quickly led to a "Knuke the Knack" campaign led by San Francisco artist Hugh Brown.[7]
I definitely remember the Knack backlash and thought it was ridiculous. The complaints were: 1.) They were hyped as the next Beatles; 2.) Their songs were sleazy sex songs, and 3.) They were misogynists. My response was: 1.) Record companies hype new bands as “the next Beatles” all of the time. Capitol records was just a little more creative about it. 2.) A good part of rock and roll history is made up of sleazy sex songs. 3.) Misogynists? Compared to whom? The Rolling Stones? Led Zeppelin?
I don't think teenagers in that era thought much about the Beatles at all. Certainly not a reason for the band to falter. It's all down to the music. The second album could not match the debut, and they lost all their momentum.
It didn't help talk about their interest in... er... younger women when it was revealed that 25-year-old Fieger was dating the real life 17-year-old Sharona. However I thought the misogyny claims were strange since they could be leveled against pretty much any other male rock band at the time.
I was in high school then. Most kids buying Knack records didn't care much what rock critics were writing. The problem was the second album was short on really good songs and seemed lightweight and poorly thought out overall. The best tunes were derivative: "Can't Put A Price On Love" was "Beast Of Burden Lite" and "Baby Talks Dirty" was "Son Of My Sharona." Looking back at it now, the second record was rushed out. Get The Knack came out in June 1979 and ...But The Little Girls Understand was released in Feb. 1980. They hit a sophomore slump and never recovered. They also probably saturated the market. And I agree that it's laughable to crow about "sexism" and "misogyny" when people (especially critics) then turn around and worship the Rolling Stones. If sexism is the bee in your bonnet, better throw away that copy of Aftermath.
100% this. I remember them being huge and the follow up record going straight into the cut-out bin. It was like they had the plague. The 80's should have been very kind to The Knack, tons of bands had hits with similar formulas through the middle of the decade.
That second album wasn't nearly as good as the debut . Rushed possibly. But I thought 'Round Trip ' was a fine record , however it just died . All I have of The Knack now is a single-CD compilation which serves its purpose I suppose .
I was a teenager of that era - they were marketed as a kind of Beatles experience and no, it did not go over well. Because as a teenager, the Beatles were part of my musical experience but so was everything from the 70s and the punk movement. Why would I, as a teenager want to go backwards when all the exciting music was now? Another example of marketers trying to decide how people should perceive a band. I liked the single a lot and I had the album but my overall reaction was, as the old folks say, meh. Having said that, they could have recovered if they really wanted to figure out how. I read a lot of the music mags and my understanding is that they had a good local following and were flashy and good. One of the problems I had was everything I read about Doug Fieger at the time was that he was a bit overbearing and full of himself. But that's just perception from 40 years ago. Also didn't help that his songs referenced lewd designs on young women and he looked like a geeky perv on that cover. Yeah, that was a thing then too.
Not a bad record at all! Personally I wish Doug would have kept the band "Sky" together, always liked them much more than The Knack.
In interviews Fieger compared the Knack to the Beatles, the Who, the Kinks. Easy, tiger. You’ve been around five minutes......
Part of the problem was that they looked like the Beatles but were not as likeable because some of the lyrics were bordering on Zappa-like sleaziness. Not a great formula plus they were sort of a one-hit wonder band anyway. My Sharona got old pretty quick from what I remember. If I hear it twice in one year that is quite enough.
Pretentious marketing and comparisons to The Beatles turned off a lot of potential buyers including myself.
It's unbelievable how much creepy and predatory behavior men have gotten away with over the years, just because they made songs that a lot of people enjoyed
