The Knack
Get The Knack

Zooming like Halley's comet in the firmament of rock stars and stripes, the Knack embody the inverted conception of the Latin aphorism "Ars longa vita brevis" or "Ars brevis vita longa." Having achieved global success with the one-hit wonder "My Sharona" (a song covered by Mina and the thrashers Destruction, just to mention two artists at opposite ends), they disbanded and then reunited, once again evaporated, disappearing into the stale atmosphere of minor music markets, liquefied in the clutches of critics' antipathy, while also crafting decent albums, but devoid of commercial appeal, reheating the same steak à la Elvis and burning it upon the release of their second full-length.

The band was formed in Los Angeles in 1978 and consists of Doug Fieger, vocals and rhythm guitar, Berton Averre, lead guitar, Prescott Niles, bass, and Bruce Gary, drums, who were swiftly launched into the market by cunning record slingers and compared by some prankster to the Beatles, due to their black and white image. Power-Pop, with a few molecules of Hard Rock, carefully packaged, digestible and radio-friendly, thrilled the American youth of 1979, thanks to Doug Fieger's beautiful melodic voice and the underlying Rock 'N Roll that permeated the little songs of this debut album "Get The Knack", produced by Mike Chapman. An innocent recipe, with lyrics that don't stray far from the cars & girls model of the Beach Boys (with the necessary distinctions), redesigned in energetic serenades and the instrumental skill of the rhythmic section, which alternates lively moments with candy-coated ones. All this gave the band limousines, screaming girls, the front pages of music magazines: a script just as celebrated as it was up-to-date. What more could you want? Nothing. And the Music biz gave them nothing.
A spartan budget, ten days of recording, and sparse overdubbing, almost direct: this is the secret of "Get The Knack" which turns platinum in a flash in the States. In the album, there are buried gems like "Siamese Twins (The Monkey And Me)" truly delightful in its gritty melody, with all-cymbals drumming, stripped of any cerebral intent, with no other claim than to capture the attention of young Yankees in a broad audience, yet injecting a dark scream before the reinforcing guitar solo, balanced by the crystalline voices of the chorus, never over the top. There aren't many such pictures in this platter, except for the Hollies cover "Heartbeat" which is in harmony with the sound of the project, although the album is baptized by "Let Me Out", a nice neurotic rock with frenzied drumming, grazed by insistent rolls, always taking care not to engage the listener too much, after all, there is also a female audience to seduce with sugary ballads like "Oh Tara" or "Lucinda", with Fieger on top. "Good Girls Don't" is so simple as to surprise the audience, who nonetheless appreciate its composure and usability, also thanks to the use of a mouth harmonica opening. The peak of the album, however, is "My Sharona" (dedicated to a groupie). Indeed, the album is built around this song, with the author duo Fieger-Averre pervaded by the sacred fire of the dazzling Pop piece, a "chart-buster", a brilliant mix of old and new "Rocka Rolla" amid all the neglected and rampant disco music. It is not a piece that represents an era like "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, but a portrait of simplicity set to music: "It's Only Rock & Roll," sang the Rolling Stones. And we like it. The song is so digestible that the Knack would have roasted it in two minutes, but they manage to reinvent it thanks to a lead guitar tour de force by the fearless Berton Averre, which went down in history, transforming the ditty into a sparkling rock festival nestled in the collective imagination.
A few years ago Alice Cooper stated that "My Sharona" was one of those songs that have entered rock history that he would have loved to write, regretting the fact that it was composed by a Pop group. Ipse Dixit. After this intoxicating success, the quartet produced an album "... But The Little Girls Understand" which garnered moderate acclaim in the wake of the debut and later released "Round Trip", a commercial flop that sank the band. The group would reform several times, but the magic of "My Sharona" will remain unmatched. They are still active, but without the original drummer Bruce Gary.