Power pop rarely explodes into the mainstream with the speed of a lightning strike, but in the summer of 1979 the Knack pulled it off. Their debut album Get the Knack stormed out of Los Angeles clubs and onto the Billboard 200, climbing to #1 in less than two months. “My Sharona” blasted from car radios everywhere, teenage mania kicked in, and Capitol Records had its fastest-selling debut since the Beatles. Beneath the hype and the backlash, though, the record hides some surprising details.
1. Two weeks, $18,000
The entire album was recorded in just 14 days for $18,000. At a time when rock stars were spending six figures on studio time, the Knack made a blockbuster hit with the budget of an indie demo.
2. Beatlemania by design
From the rainbow Capitol label to the Meet the Beatles!-inspired cover, the Knack insisted their debut look and feel like a Beatles artifact. Even the back cover echoed a shot from A Hard Day’s Night.
3. A song written in 15 minutes
Doug Fieger said “My Sharona” came together in a flash—written in 15 minutes, recorded in a single take, and mixed just as quickly. The result became 1979’s biggest single and one of power pop’s defining anthems.
4. Sharona was real
The song’s muse, 17-year-old Sharona Alperin, inspired a fevered streak of songwriting and later became Fieger’s girlfriend. She went on to a successful career in real estate, forever linked to a pop juggernaut.
5. “Knuke the Knack” backlash
Critics bristled at the Knack’s cocky image and fast rise. San Francisco artist Hugh Brown launched a satirical “Knuke the Knack” campaign with buttons and T-shirts, turning the band’s success into one of rock’s most notorious backlashes.
Get the Knack is one of the wildest overnight successes of the late ’70s, wrapped in Beatle-worship, fueled by a teenage crush, and chased by controversy. Forty-plus years later, it still sounds like a band sprinting into history with no time—or money—to waste.