The Knack

1. My Sharona

"Is my cock big enough, is my brain small enough, for you to make me a star?" -- from "Pull My Strings" by the Dead Kennedys

"This record is very dear to me and my bank manager" -- producer Mike Chapman, in the liner notes to But the Little Girls Understand

Poster boys for one hit wonderdom, though the Knack actually had three hits, their status as "that band that did "My Sharona"" is deserved. They were four young veterans of unsuccessful bands and studio work who got together in 1978 to play "high school songs". Quickly creating a buzz on the Hollywood club scene, they became the centre of the biggest record company feeding frenzy seen up to that time. They signed to Capitol and recorded their debut album, Get the Knack, with Parallel Lines producer Mike Chapman in 1979.

Critics rightly ripped the banal songs beneath the glossy mixing ("The Knack delivers time-warped heartless junk with a contemptuous sneer", unattributed). But they managed to attach enough hooks to "My Sharona" to ensure immortality of a sort. The low-high jabs of Berton Averre's guitar line were worthy of Big Star; the performance had enough energy to overcome reservations about the lyrics -- a horny screed that not only fails to suggest that she'd enjoy the sex, it won't even convince anyone that he'd have much fun. "My Sharona" hit number one in the U.S. in August.

Two years later they had broken up. "Baby Talks Dirty", the lead single from their second album ...But the Little Girls Understand, broke the Law of Pop Recycling by reusing the "My Sharona" riff a mere FOUR MONTHS after that song's peak. When Round Trip, their third album, also flopped, the writing was on the wall. The Knack have often reformed for reunion tours, as befits a group of their profitability.