Damned Dirty Apes News

The Knack lead singer Doug Fieger dead at 57

By April MacIntyre Feb 15, 2010, 3:22 GMT

Doug Fieger, the lead singer of the rock band The Knack, has died after a battle with cancer, his brother, attorney Geoffrey Fieger confirmed today.  He was 57.

The Knack was the definitive sound of New Wave that took over after the Punk invasion of 1978 with the Sex Pistols' first American tour.  The band broke wide in 1979 with "My Sharona," a song that was celebrated in the 1994 film "Reality Bites."

Fieger sang lead vocals on that song which held the No. 1 spot for six weeks.

A southern Californian by way of Detroit, Fieger graduated from Oak Park High School and was living in Woodland Hills, Calif. and he was reportedly being treated at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to the Detroit News.

"Everybody knows they're going sooner or later," Fieger told Detroit News columnist Neal Rubin in a January interview. "I don't know any better than anyone else when I'm going.

"I've had 10 great lives. And I expect to have some more. I don't feel cheated in any way, shape or form."

Fieger told the Jewishtimes.com that his song was written by himself and guitarist Berton Averre.  Mr. Fieger told the Jewishtimes.com the song was for Sharona Alperin, a 16-year-old schoolgirl at the time.

“I fell in love with her instantly,” Mr. Fieger told the Jewishtimes.com. “And when that happened, it sparked something and I started writing a lot of songs feverishly in a short amount of time.”