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The Knack is a Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles is the largest city in the U.S. state of California and the List of United States cities by population in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles is rated as a beta global city, has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California....
-based rock
Rock music

Rock music is a loosely defined genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the mid 1950's. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rhythm and blues, country music and other influences....
 quartet that rose to fame with their first single, "My Sharona
My Sharona

"My Sharona" is the debut single by The Knack, released in 1979 from their album Get the Knack. It reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart where it remained for six weeks and was #1 on Billboard's Top Pop Singles of 1979 year-end chart....
", an international hit in the second half of 1979
1979 in music

See also:* :Category:Musical groups established in 1979* :Category:Record labels established in 1979* 1979 in music ...
.

The power pop
Power pop

Power pop is a popular musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American Pop music and rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of musical devices such as strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements, and prominent guitar riffs....
 of "My Sharona", coupled with the band's "retro" 1960s look, earned the band comparisons to the early Beatles. Many music critics of the era disliked disco
Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music that originated in and was initially popular among African American, gay and Hispanic and Latino Americans communities in the United States in the late 1960s....
, which dominated the music industry at the time, and were, at best, coolly receptive to other developing genres like punk rock
Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock....
, new wave
New Wave music

New Wave is a genre of rock music which originated from the late 1970s. It emerged from punk rock as a reaction against the popular music of the 1970s....
 and heavy metal music
Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified Distortion , extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall...
.






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Encyclopedia


The Knack is a Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles is the largest city in the U.S. state of California and the List of United States cities by population in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles is rated as a beta global city, has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California....
-based rock
Rock music

Rock music is a loosely defined genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the mid 1950's. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rhythm and blues, country music and other influences....
 quartet that rose to fame with their first single, "My Sharona
My Sharona

"My Sharona" is the debut single by The Knack, released in 1979 from their album Get the Knack. It reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart where it remained for six weeks and was #1 on Billboard's Top Pop Singles of 1979 year-end chart....
", an international hit in the second half of 1979
1979 in music

See also:* :Category:Musical groups established in 1979* :Category:Record labels established in 1979* 1979 in music ...
.

The power pop
Power pop

Power pop is a popular musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American Pop music and rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of musical devices such as strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements, and prominent guitar riffs....
 of "My Sharona", coupled with the band's "retro" 1960s look, earned the band comparisons to the early Beatles. Many music critics of the era disliked disco
Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music that originated in and was initially popular among African American, gay and Hispanic and Latino Americans communities in the United States in the late 1960s....
, which dominated the music industry at the time, and were, at best, coolly receptive to other developing genres like punk rock
Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock....
, new wave
New Wave music

New Wave is a genre of rock music which originated from the late 1970s. It emerged from punk rock as a reaction against the popular music of the 1970s....
 and heavy metal music
Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified Distortion , extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall...
. The Knack's power pop and hard rock
Hard rock

Hard rock is a sub-genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock and psychedelic rock and is considerably harder than conventional rock music....
 influences earned them some critical credibility. They were also vilified by some critics for their misogynistic lyrics. After subsequent albums, there was a critical backlash against the band and they broke up amidst internal squabbles. They have re-united periodically over the years and are currently still active.

History

Singer Doug Fieger
Doug Fieger

Douglas Adam Fieger is an United States singer-songwriter. He is the lead singer for The Knack, and co-wrote the 1979 chart-topper "My Sharona", with lead guitarist, Berton Averre....
, a native of Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Wayne County, Michigan. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwestern United States of the United States....
, had previously played in an eclectic rock band called Sky
Sky (US band)

Sky was an United States of America band in the early 1970s, based in the Detroit area, who put out two albums on RCA, 1970 in music's Don't Hold Back and 1971 in music's Sailor's Delight ....
 as well as The Sunset Bombers. Fieger is the brother of Detroit-area attorney Geoffrey Fieger
Geoffrey Fieger

Geoffrey Fieger is a controversial American Lawyer based in Southfield, Michigan. He is the senior partner in Fieger Law and occasional legal commentator for NBC and MSNBC....
, best known for representing Dr. Jack Kevorkian
Jack Kevorkian

Jack Kevorkian is a former pathologist. He is most noted for publicly championing a terminal patient's right to die via physician-assisted suicide; he claims to have assisted at least 130 patients to that end....
 in a series of assisted suicide cases. Of the three other original members of The Knack (Berton Averre - Guitar, Prescott Niles
Prescott Niles

Prescott Niles is an American rock bassist. He is best known as bassist with The Knack, who had a #1 US/#6 UK hit with 'My Sharona'. It sold 10 million copies in the US....
 - Bass, and Bruce Gary
Bruce Gary

Bruce Gary was best known as the drummer for the music group The Knack. He was nominated for two Grammy Awards as a stage performer, producer, and recording artist....
 - Drums), Averre and Niles still currently play with The Knack. Bruce Gary
Bruce Gary

Bruce Gary was best known as the drummer for the music group The Knack. He was nominated for two Grammy Awards as a stage performer, producer, and recording artist....
 died from lymphoma
Lymphoma

Lymphoma is a type of cancer that originates in lymphocytes of the immune system. They often originate in lymph nodes, presenting as an enlargement of the node ....
 on August 22, 2006. He was 55.

Bruce Gary
Bruce Gary

Bruce Gary was best known as the drummer for the music group The Knack. He was nominated for two Grammy Awards as a stage performer, producer, and recording artist....
 left the band well before his death, becoming a respected producer (archive recordings of Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall Hendrix was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter whose guitar playing continues to be a considerable influence on rock music....
 and new recordings of The Ventures
The Ventures

The Ventures are an United States instrumental rock band formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington, Washington. The band, formed by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, two masonry workers, has had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide, having sold over 100 million records, and are to date the best-selling instrumental band of all time....
) and a very successful sideman performing live and on studio sessions with artists such as Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce

John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scotland musician, musical composer and singer. He is best-known as an electric bass guitarist, harmonica player and piano, and was most famous as a vocalist and the bass guitarist for the 1960s rock band Cream ....
, Mick Taylor
Mick Taylor

Michael "Mick" Kevin Taylor and another performance from the Old Grey Whistle Test seem to be the only material available from this brief collaboration....
, Bob Dylan, George Harrison
George Harrison

George Harrison Order of the British Empire was an English Rock music guitarist, singer-songwriter and film producer. He achieved international fame as lead guitarist in The Beatles, and is listed number 21 in Rolling Stone Magazine's list of "The 100 Best Guitarists of All Time"....
, Cherie Currie
Cherie Currie

Cherie Currie is an United States singer, musician and actress. Currie was the lead vocalist of The Runaways, an all-female hard rock, proto-punk rock band from Los Angeles, California in the mid-to-late 1970s....
, Robby Krieger
Robby Krieger

Robert Alan Krieger is an American rock and roll guitarist and songwriter. He was the guitarist in The Doors, and wrote some of the band's best known songs, including "Light My Fire", "Love Me Two Times", "Touch Me " and "Love Her Madly"....
, Spencer Davis
Spencer Davis

Spencer David Nelson Davis is a musician and multi-instrumentalist, and the founder of the 1960s rock music musical band, the Spencer Davis Group....
, Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills

Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash ....
, Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart

Roderick David "Rod" Stewart Order of the British Empire is a British singer and songwriter born and raised in London, England and currently residing in Epping....
, and Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an United States singer-songwriter and musician. Her music blends rock music, country music, pop music and folk music, into one mainstream sound, and she has won nine Grammy Awards....
 - and he did not join the more recent Knack reunions.

Several drummers have played for the group since Gary's departure including Billy Ward (Serious Fun album), Terry Bozzio
Terry Bozzio

Terry John Bozzio is an United States drummer best known for his work with the late Frank Zappa....
 (Zoom album), and David Henderson as 'Holmes Jones' (Normal as the Next Guy and Live at the Rock N Roll Funhouse albums). Currently Pat Torpey
Pat Torpey

Pat Torpey is the drummer of the hard rock band Mr. Big . Mr. Big was Atlantic Records biggest selling act in Japan until their breakup in 2002....
 (Mr. Big) is playing the drums for the group.

All four original band members, including Bruce Gary, reunited in the studio on one occasion in recent years to record a track for a multi-artist compilation album saluting the British band Badfinger
Badfinger

Badfinger was a rock band formed in Swansea in the early 1960s and was one of the earliest representatives of the power pop genre. During the early 1970s the band was tagged as the heir apparent to The Beatles, partly because of their close working relationship with the 'Fab Four' and partly because of their similar sound....
. In 2005, The Knack made an appearance on the TV program "Hit Me Baby One More Time".

As of August 2006, the band has been on hiatus after Doug Fieger underwent surgery.

Doug Fieger appeared in the Countdown Spectacular
Countdown Spectacular

The Countdown Spectacular is a series of concerts reviving the nostalgia of the Australian music television series Countdown ....
 2 concert series in Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
 between late-August and early-September 2007. He sang The Knack favourite "My Sharona
My Sharona

"My Sharona" is the debut single by The Knack, released in 1979 from their album Get the Knack. It reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart where it remained for six weeks and was #1 on Billboard's Top Pop Singles of 1979 year-end chart....
" only.

Lawsuit

Members of The Knack have filed a lawsuit against popular rap music group Run DMC for copyright infringement. The lawsuit alleges that the defining guitar riff from "My Sharona" was used without permission in the Run DMC track "It's Tricky
It's Tricky

It's Tricky was the final single released from Run-D.M.C.'s third album, Raising Hell . It was released late in 1987 through Profile Records and was produced by Rick Rubin and co-produced by the group themselves....
" from their 1986 album Raising Hell
Raising Hell

Raising Hell is the third album by hip-hop group Run-D.M.C..Its breakthrough album, Raising Hell trumped standing perceptions of commercial viability for hip-hop groups, achieving triple-platinum record status and receiving critical attention from quarters that had previously ignored hip hop as a fad....
. The amount of damages sought is currently unspecified.

Discography

Studio album
  • Get the Knack
    Get the Knack

    Get the Knack is the debut album by The Knack, released in June 1979. The album went platinum in just two months and spent five weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart....
     (1979) #1 (6 weeks) US, #65 UK 2x Platinum
  • ...But The Little Girls Understand (1980) #15 US Gold
  • Round Trip (1981) #93 US
  • Serious Fun (1991)
  • Zoom (1998)
  • Normal As The Next Guy (2001)
  • Re-Zoom (Zoom with Bonus Tracks) (2003)


Live Album Released on CD and DVD
  • Live From the Rock n Roll Funhouse (2001)


Live Concert Released on Laserdisc
  • The Knack Live at Carnegie Hall (1979)


Live Concert Released on DVD
  • World Cafe Live: The Knack in Concert (May 2007)


Compilation Albums
  • My Sharona (1995)
  • Retrospective (1992)
  • Proof: The Very Best Of The Knack (1998)


Documentary DVD
  • Getting The Knack (2004)


Singles
  • "My Sharona
    My Sharona

    "My Sharona" is the debut single by The Knack, released in 1979 from their album Get the Knack. It reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart where it remained for six weeks and was #1 on Billboard's Top Pop Singles of 1979 year-end chart....
    " (1979) #1 (6 weeks) US, #6 UK, #1 Australia (5 Weeks)
  • "Good Girls Don't
    Good Girls Don't (song)

    "Good Girls Don't" is a 1979 single released by rock band The Knack, off their album Get the Knack. It was a follow up to the group's #1 single, "My Sharona"....
    " (1979) #11 US, #66 UK
  • "Baby Talks Dirty" (1980) #38 US
  • "Can't Put A Price On Love" (1980) #62 US
  • "Pay The Devil" (1981) #67 US
  • "Rocket O' Love" (1991) #9 US (mainstream rock tracks)


Audio sample


External links