[Deathwatch] Doug Fieger, musician, 57

[Notification of departing celebrities]

February 16, 2010


  Doug Fieger Dies at 57, Singer of 'My Sharona'

By BEN SISARIO 
<http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=BEN%20SISARIO&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=BEN%20SISARIO&inline=nyt-per>

Doug Fieger, the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the band the Knack, 
whose enduring 1979 hit "My Sharona" has become an emblem of the new 
wave era in rock and a prime example of the brevity of pop fame, died on 
Sunday at his home in Woodland Hills, Calif. He was 57.

The cause was lung cancer, his family announced.

With a six-week run at No. 1, "My Sharona" was the inescapable hit of 
the summer of 1979, and it became a staple of high school dance parties 
for years to come. Built on a simple riff that was as perky as it was 
sexy, the song, by Mr. Fieger and the band's lead guitarist, Berton 
Averre, celebrated teenage lust in unabashed terms. "When you gonna give 
it to me?" Mr. Fieger sang in the impatient whine that was his hallmark.

The song, written about a 17-year-old high school student who had caught 
the eye of the 26-year-old Mr. Fieger, displaced Chic's disco anthem 
"Good Times" on Billboard's singles chart and came to symbolize the 
commercial arrival of new wave, the poppier, snazzier-dressed cousin of 
punk rock. (That girl, Sharona Alperin, is now a high-end real estate 
agent in Los Angeles.) With a carefully executed marketing plan, the 
members of the Knack seemed to position themselves as a new Beatles 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/b/beatles_the/index.html?inline=nyt-org>, 
adopting a uniform of white shirts and skinny black ties, even 
recreating a group pose from the film "A Hard Day's Night" for the back 
cover of their debut album, "Get the Knack" (Capitol).

"Get the Knack" seemed to signal the arrival of a major new talent. But 
the band never had another hit on the scale of "My Sharona." "Good Girls 
Don't," the album's second single, went to No. 11, and "Baby Talks 
Dirty" stalled at No. 38 in 1980.

The band's cocky behavior was interpreted as hubris by the rock press, 
and many critics called its lyrics misogynistic or worse. "Compared to 
Doug Fieger, Rod Stewart is a paragon of sexual humility," Dave Marsh 
wrote in a Rolling Stone review of the band's second album, "... But the 
Little Girls Understand."

The Knack released another album, "Round Trip," in 1981, and disbanded 
shortly thereafter, though since the early 1990s the band, mostly 
reunited, has toured and recorded frequently. In 1994 "My Sharona" was 
featured prominently in a scene in the Ben Stiller 
<http://movies.nytimes.com/person/112816/Ben-Stiller?inline=nyt-per> 
film "Reality Bites" and briefly re-entered the Billboard chart.

Bruce Gary, the Knack's original drummer, died in 2006.

Douglas Lars Fieger was born in Detroit on Aug. 20, 1952, and grew up in 
nearby Oak Park, Mich. His mother was a teacher and his father a civil 
rights lawyer. Mr. Fieger's brother, Geoffrey, is a prominent lawyer 
whose clients have included Jack Kevorkian 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/jack_kevorkian/index.html?inline=nyt-per>; 
Geoffrey survives him, as does a sister, Beth Falkenstein, and a former 
wife, Mia.

Mr. Fieger had his first taste of fame while still in high school. His 
band, Sky, was signed to RCA and recorded two albums with Jimmy Miller, 
then the Rolling Stones 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/rolling_stones/index.html?inline=nyt-org>' 
preferred producer. Sky disbanded in 1973, and by 1978 Mr. Fieger had 
formed the Knack with Mr. Averre, Mr. Gary and the bassist Prescott Niles.

Things moved quickly. Reportedly wooed by more than a dozen record 
labels, the band signed with Capitol, which had also been the Beatles' 
label. "Get the Knack," released in June 1979, became an instant smash, 
going gold in two weeks and platinum in a month.

"My Sharona," Mr. Fieger once said, had been written in 15 minutes. 
Billboard listed it as the No. 1 song of 1979.

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