Consider this one a fluke, ladies and gentlemen. The debut album by the Knack slipped through to the top of the charts on the strength of one big song and one big song alone, \u201cMy Sharona.\u201d Don\u2019t get me wrong, the late Doug Fieger was a great guy and I had the opportunity to interview him for my first book ten years ago. At the time, he shared his dismay at the changes in recording technology (\u201cThey\u2019re not even making tape anymore\u201d was a memorable quote), while still championing young bands coming up in the world like his did. It mustn\u2019t have been easy for the Knack to get out from under the shadow of \u201cMy Sharona,\u201d but Fieger had only glowing things to say about the song. Facts are facts, something had to pay the bills and that #1 smash hit surely did.<\/p>\n
If straightforward rock \u2018n\u2019 roll is your thing, then you\u2019ll undoubtedly Get The Knack.<\/i> In 1979, the band were dubbed as the new Beatles, both in sound and style. The fact that they were Americans didn\u2019t deter the world from initially viewing them as the \u201cnext big thing,\u201d but you know how hype goes. One minute they love you and the next, you\u2019re heading for a fall. Beatlesque guitar work can be heard on the gingerly paced \u201cYour Number Or Your Name\u201d and \u201cThat\u2019s What The Little Girls Do.\u201d Lyrically, the simple love song \u201cOh Tara\u201d can\u2019t get any closer to \u201cOh Darling\u201d if it tried. All of the material on this debut is on the rough side of quaint, especially by today\u2019s in-your-face standards. Its fine to hear as it\u2019s playing, but largely forgettable when it\u2019s all over.<\/p>\n
The Knack does show some spunk and edge on \u201c(She\u2019s So) Selfish,\u201d which must\u2019ve been a hoot to hear them play live. It would\u2019ve made a wild second single, but it wasn\u2019t to be. Capitol chose to go with \u201cGood Girls Don\u2019t\u201d instead. That was a stupid mistake. Does anyone really want the image of a girl sitting on Doug Fieger\u2019s face? Soon after, their Knack for churning out a hit would become less and less reliable. Other songs on Get The Knack<\/i> that don\u2019t quite work are the clattering \u201cSiamese Twins\u201d and the dull ballad \u201cMaybe Tonight.\u201d On the other hand, \u201cHeartbeat\u201d is a standout cut, mainly because it sounds just like the Knack\u2019s chief rivals, Cheap Trick.<\/p>\n
But what an afterlife that lightning in a bottle song \u201cMy Sharona\u201d has had. Would the Generation X flick Reality Bites<\/i> be the same without it? It really is a catchy tune that had the multitudes in \u201979 going berserk on the dance floor, in the streets, you name it. Had it been released today, it would inspire countless YouTube videos. Any song that was featured on K-Tel\u2019s Rock 80<\/i> compilation became a hit, so mad props to them!<\/p>\n
Doug Fieger didn\u2019t exactly have many kind words to say about producer Mike Chapman, who was absent most of the time during the recording process. Fieger labeled him as nothing more than a figurehead from the record company, who was focused more on other more established acts like Blondie. The main creative force, band director, musician and songwriter was always Doug Fieger himself. He was the one who never lost faith in his band, continuing to record and tour whenever possible, until his untimely death from cancer in 2010. There\u2019s something to be said for that kind of dedication and determination, regardless of the odds. R.I.P. Doug.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":24359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5687],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-43718","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-knack","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43718"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}