"Knack" тобының тарихы

American band

The Knack was an American rock band based in Los Angeles that rose to fame with its first single, "My Sharona", an international number one hit in 1979. The Knack was founded in 1978 with the original and classic lineup of Doug Fieger (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Berton Averre (lead guitar, backing vocals), Prescott Niles (bass) and Bruce Gary (drums). It was this lineup that recorded the group's first three albums. Spearheaded by the success of the "My Sharona" single, their first album, Get the Knack (1979), reached number one on the charts of several countries. However, their next two albums, But The Little Girls Understand (1980) and Round Trip (1981), were significantly less successful. Faced with diminishing success, the group disbanded in 1982. The band reunited in 1986, and released their fourth album Serious Fun in 1991, before breaking up again the following year. After a brief reunion in 1994, the Knack reunited again in 1996, recording two more albums, Zoom (1998) and Normal as the Next Guy (2001). Following Fieger's death in 2010, the Knack permanently disbanded. A final album, Rock & Roll Is Good for You: The Fieger/Averre Demos was released in 2012.

Singer Doug Fieger was a native of Oak Park, Michigan, a northern suburb of Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in the 9 Mile/Greenfield area. The brother of attorney Geoffrey Fieger (later known for representing Jack Kevorkian in a series of assisted suicide cases) Fieger had previously played in an eclectic rock band called Sky as well as the Sunset Bombers. Although Sky had received a modest amount of acclaim, including being produced by Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller, the band broke up without having any chart success. As a result, Fieger made the decision to move to Los Angeles and start another band. Shortly after arriving in L. A., Fieger met Berton Averre (lead guitar, backing vocals and keyboards), and the two started a songwriting partnership. Fieger had also known Bruce Gary (drums) for years before forming the Knack in 1978 with Prescott Niles (bass). Niles was the last to join, a week before the band's first show in June 1978. In the meantime, Fieger had been doubling on bass on a series of demos that the group had shopped to several record labels, all of which were rejected. Some of these songs later made up the band's debut album Get the Knack, and included "Good Girls Don't".

Within months of their live debut, popular club gigs on the Sunset Strip, as well as guest jams with musicians such as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Ray Manzarek, led to the band being the subject of a record label bidding war. The band was pursued by ten record labels, but decided on Capitol Records; at the time, the Knack was given the largest signing sum in the label's history. A&R executives Bruce Garfield and Bruce Ravid are credited with signing the band. The band's debut album, Get the Knack, was one of the year's best selling albums, holding the number one spot on Billboard magazine's album chart for five consecutive weeks and selling two million copies in the United States. The lead single, "My Sharona", was a No. 1 hit in the US, and became the number one song of 1979. The follow up single "Good Girls Don't" peaked at No. 11 in the US, and reached No. 1 in Canada. However, the band's rise to the top of the charts also precipitated a backlash. Capitol's packaging of Get the Knack included a perceived cover likeness to Meet the Beatles! with the record's center label being the same design and style as the Beatles' early 1960s LPs. Coupled with the band's "retro" 1960s look and pop/rock sound, the company's stylings led detractors to accuse them of being Beatles rip offs,

The Knack quickly recorded a follow up album But the Little Girls Understand, which was released in early 1980. Though the album went gold in the US and Japan, and platinum in Canada, Fieger left amidst internal squabbles on December 31, 1981, just months after the release of Round Trip. Averre, Niles, and Gary briefly continued with former Roadmaster vocalist Stephen 'Mac' McNally as "The Game" after the Knack's initial break up. By mid 1982, the Knack had split up while Fieger formed a new band, "Doug Fieger's Taking Chances".

The Knack reunited in November 1986, to play a benefit for Michele Myers, who had been the first person to book the band for a show in 1978.). The Knack continued as a touring and recording act through the late 1990s and into the 2000s. Duane Leinan joined The Knack in the studio and on the road, playing bass guitar from 2008 to 2010. Terry Bozzio replaced Ward as drummer for 1998's Zoom, and David Henderson (as "Holmes Jones") took over on drums for 2001's Normal as the Next Guy and Live at the Rock N Roll Funhouse albums. Pat Torpey then returned to take over for Henderson and played with the group until Fieger's death in 2010. In 2005, the Knack made an appearance on the TV program Hit Me, Baby, One More Time, performing "My Sharona" and Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl". In 2006, Doug Fieger and Berton Averre filed a lawsuit against the hip hop music group Run–D. M. C. for copyright infringement. The lawsuit alleges that the defining guitar riff from "My Sharona" was used without permission in the Run D. M. C. track "It's Tricky" from their 1986 album Raising Hell. In 2006, during a performance in Las Vegas, Fieger became disoriented, developing a dull headache, and grasping for the words to the songs that he had written and performed for years. Diagnosed with two brain tumors, Fieger underwent surgery and radiosurgery and returned to performing. However, he still continued to battle brain and lung cancer until his death on February 14, 2010, in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of 57, effectively bringing the band to an end.

In the interim between the Knack's break up and 1986 reunion, Doug Fieger worked as a guest vocalist on a few tracks by Was (Not Was). (Fieger had grown up with band member Don Was; Was later produced the Knack's album Serious Fun. Bruce Gary became a producer (archive recordings of Jimi Hendrix and new recordings of The Ventures) and a sideman performing live and on studio sessions with a wide range of artists. Gary died from lymphoma on August 22, 2006, at the age of 55.