Don Fieger, rocker and lead singer of the ’70s/’80s pop-rock band The Knack, has died.
The Detroit native, best remembered for the 1979 hit “My Sharona,” died at his Woodland Hills, California home Sunday after a six year battle against lung cancer spread to his brain, The Knack’s manager, Jake Hooker, told The Associated Press.
He was 57.
Fieger formed The Knack in Los Angeles in 1978. A year later, he co-wrote and sang lead vocals on “My Sharona” — after being rebuffed by a gorgeous girl of the same name. She was 17 and in high school at the time — Fieger was 26. The two eventually got together, but split four years later. Today, Sharona Alperin is a Los Angeles real estate agent. Easily recognizable by its pounding drums and polarizing guitar solo, the song became an instant smash, spending six weeks atop the Billboard 200 and later being parodied by Weird Al Yankovic. The song was even sampled by rap pioneers Run-DMC.
“I had never met a girl like her — ever,” Fieger told The AP in 1994. “She induced madness. She was a very powerful presence. She had an insouciance that wouldn’t quit. She was very self-assured. … She also had an overpowering scent, and it drove me crazy.”
Don Fieger is survived by his brother Geoffrey and sister Beth, who remembered their brother in a joint press statement issued Sunday: “Doug did not suffer. He is in a better place. And wherever he is, his love and music will continue to shower down upon all of us who remain in this mortal coil, forever.”