My Sharona singer dies

Source: abc.net.au

The Knack lead singer Doug Fieger, who co-wrote the 1979 hit My Sharona, has died aged 57.

Fieger was living in California and was being treated for cancer, the Detroit News said.

"Our hearts are broken, we will miss you Doug," Knack members wrote on their website.

The band built a large and influential following in the Los Angeles club scene of the late 70s and recorded its debut album, Get The Knack, in 11 days for $US17,000.

Capitol Records pulled out all the stops promoting the album and Rolling Stone magazine referred to the band as "the new Fab Four" - a reference to The Beatles.

Billboard named My Sharona the number one single of 1979.

The song has been covered by numerous artists and returned to the charts in 1994 after it was included on the soundtrack for the hit movie Reality Bites.

Fieger co-wrote My Sharona with bandmate Berton Averre after being initially rebuffed by a teenage girl of the same name in 1978.

Fieger told People magazine in 1995 he had hoped she would be flattered by such lines as: "I always get it up for the touch of the younger kind."

Sharona Alperin apparently joined Fieger on tour after the song's release and became a rock star girlfriend for three years.