Formed in Los Angeles during the closing years of the 1970s, the Knack—Doug Fieger on vocals and guitar, Berton Averre on lead guitar, Prescott Niles on bass, and Bruce Gary on drums—offered straightforward pop rather than punk or hard rock, distinguishing themselves from the uninspired acts crowding the Sunset Strip. After a rush of offers from record companies, they signed with Capitol and issued their first album, Get the Knack, in 1979. The opening track, “My Sharona,” propelled both the LP and the single up the charts; millions of copies moved worldwide, broad commercial favor followed, and the power-pop genre, dormant for five years, regained momentum.
Critics frequently drew unfavorable parallels between the band’s understated look and that of the Beatles, yet the Knack drew their sonic drive from the jagged energy of the Kinks and the Who instead of the Fab Four. Their decision to avoid interviews quickly soured press opinion, and the release of their sophomore effort, …But the Little Girls Understand, less than twelve months after the debut, coincided with the start of a backlash that included the slogan “Knuke the Knack.”
From that point the group entered a steep, irreversible decline. Their third album, Round Trip, explored new territory and earned positive notices, but the members disbanded shortly after its appearance. Underground interest persisted, however, and nearly ten years later the Knack reemerged—without Bruce Gary—to record the poorly received Serious Fun before retreating once more. When “My Sharona” resurfaced on film soundtracks and various compilations, the band found itself swept into a modest revival, prompting occasional reunions and shows around Los Angeles. Bruce Gary rejoined briefly, yet by the time the second post-reunion album, Zoom, arrived in the summer of 1998, Terry Bozzio—previously of Missing Persons and Frank Zappa’s band—occupied the drum chair. With the 2001 release Normal as the Next Guy, the musicians hoped a fresh audience would discover them; the record showed the group at its strongest precisely when it abandoned earlier formulas. Doug Fieger succumbed to lung and heart cancer in 2010.
