<\/p>\n
On August 25, 1979, “My Sharona” by The Knack<\/strong> hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 just two months after debuting. It stayed in that spot for six weeks, eventually being dethroned on October 6. The single served as Capitol Records’ fastest-selling debut release in the U.S. since The Beatles\u2019<\/strong>I Want To Hold Your Hand.<\/p>\n While the tune was inarguably catchy and fun, the lyrics themselves were rather controversial\u2014or rather, the muse behind them.<\/p>\n Singer and guitarist Doug Fieger<\/strong> evidently penned the career-defining track in a flurry of creative energy. The inspiration for the 24-year-old\u2019s jam? His then 17-year-old girlfriend, Sharona Alperin<\/strong>. Though, the song was penned before the two officially got together. In the liner notes for the album<\/a>Get the Knack, Fieger<\/strong> wrote:<\/p>\n “It was like getting hit in the head with a baseball bat; I fell in love with her instantly. And when that happened, it sparked something and I started writing a lot of songs feverishly in a short amount of time.”<\/p>\n Louder Sound reporter Bill DeMain noted that Fieger<\/strong> confessed<\/a> he left his girlfriend Judy<\/strong> to pursue Alperin<\/strong>, who made him feel “sixteen again.”<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a conscious effort for both me and Berton Averre<\/strong>, lead guitarist and co-writer, to come at it from the point of view of our remembered teenage selves,\u201d Fieger<\/strong> recalled. \u201cWe wanted to tell the story from that place, where it\u2019s more raw and direct.\u201d<\/p>\n Related: This Country Icon Turned a Lifetime of Ridicule Into One of His Most Unforgettable Hits<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Alperin<\/strong> and Fieger<\/strong> dated for a while after the initial chase, but she once told NPR that she kept him at a distance<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cDoug<\/strong> made it very clear he was in love with me,\u201d Alperin<\/strong> said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t like my boyfriend and the world didn\u2019t know. I always say that he was my groupie, I wasn\u2019t his.\u201d<\/p>\n “I was about 16 or 17 at the time,” Alperin<\/strong> went on to tell host Guy Raz<\/strong>. “He was nine years older than me. And within a month or two later, he told me that, ‘I’m in love with you, you’re my soulmate, you’re my other half, we’re going to be together one day.’ And I was madly in love with my boyfriend at the time, so it took a year for me to leave my boyfriend.”<\/p>\n She ultimately ended up being the single’s cover girl and became a mini-celebrity alongside the band. Though they did date, they eventually separated and married other people. They remained close friends until Fieger<\/strong> died on Valentine\u2019s Day in 2010.<\/p>\n The Knack<\/strong> faced a lot of backlash in their short time in the spotlight. The song itself was protested by female-led organizers citing the lyrics as misogynistic due to Fieger<\/strong>\u2019s views on women, as well as criticism over her age<\/a>, according to Loudwire.<\/p>\n They also received blowback for trying to imitate The Beatles<\/strong> in both looks and sound. Campaigns were even launched entitled “Nuke the Knack” due to the overhype surrounding their song.<\/p>\n However, the track reached popular heights again after being used in an iconic scene in the cult-classic film Reality Bites.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfac\u00a0<\/strong>SIGN UP for Parade\u2019s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\ud83c\udfac<\/strong><\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Sep 22, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On August 25, 1979, “My Sharona” by The Knack hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 just two months after debuting. It stayed in that spot for six weeks, eventually being dethroned on October 6. The single served as Capitol Records’ fastest-selling debut release in the U.S. since The Beatles\u2019I Want To […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2048451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[327427,380044,380045],"class_list":["post-2048450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-capitol-records","tag-doug-fieger","tag-my-sharona"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/One-of-the-Most-Controversial-Pop-Songs-Ever-Topped-Charts.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2048450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2048451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2048450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2048450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2048450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The History of ‘My Sharona’<\/h2>\n
Who Was the Real Sharona?<\/h2>\n
The Biggest Controversy<\/h2>\n