Band leader co-wrote 'My Sharona'

By CHRISTOPHER MORRIS


Doug Fieger, lead singer and songwriter for the L.A.-based new wave pop band the Knack, died Sunday in Los Angeles. He was 57.

Fieger had battled successive sieges with lung and brain cancer for six years, and underwent multiple operations to remove brain tumors.
He is best known for the Knack's ubiquitous 1979 hit "My Sharona," a lusty, incessantly riffing rocker inspired by his obsession with 16-year-old musician Sharona Alperin.
The song, co-written by Fieger and guitarist Berton Averre dominated U.S. radio airplay in the summer of '79, and held the No. 1 spot on the national singles chart for six weeks. The band's debut Capitol album "Get the Knack" spent five weeks at No. 1, and was certified double platinum.
"My Sharona" returned to the national charts in 1994 after it was used in the pic "Reality Bites."
Though the group's sophomore LP "?But the Little Girls Understand" reached No. 15, none of their other singles ever reached the top 10, and the Knack never recaptured their initial success.
Born in Detroit, Fieger as a teenager was a member of the local band Sky, which recorded two albums for RCA Records. He relocated to Los Angeles and played and recorded in the band the Sunset Bombers before forming the Knack with Averre, drummer Bruce Gary and bassist Prescott Niles.
The act -- which at its inception was categorized among L.A.'s plethora of so-called "skinny-tie" power pop and new wave bands -- attracted equal measures of attention and derision on its way up for live shows that featured guest appearances by stars like Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and the Doors' Ray Manzarek.
Almost as soon as "My Sharona" reached the charts, the band sparked a "Knuke the Knack" campaign among naysayers who condemned the quartet as arrogant and misogynistic
Depleted by declining sales and negative press, the unit disbanded in 1982, but they regrouped sporadically into the new millennium; they issued their most recent album in 2001. Bruce Gary succumbed to non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2006.
After treatment for lung cancer in 2004, Fieger was diagnosed with brain cancer after he became disoriented and forgot the lyrics to "My Sharona" during a show in Las Vegas. He is survived by a brother and a sister.

The Knack's Doug Fieger dies - Entertainment News, Music News, Media - Variety

This is so sad. I'm sorry for the loss of Cherie's friend and a great musician!
Gus