My Sharona silenced !! Doug Fieger, lead singer of The Knack

[RandyW]

The Knack vocalist, Doug Fieger loses long cancer fight

Posted on February 15th, 2010 by Austin

doug fieger[HMG] – Doug Fieger, lead singer of The Knack, whose 1979 song, My Sharona was so deftly indelible it was even found on the iPod of President Bush has died in L.A of cancer. He was 57.

Born in Oak Park, Michigan on August 21, 1952, Doug met the source of his greatest success, Sharona Alperin when she was barely sixteen, and she made quite a dent;

“It was like getting hit in the head with a baseball bat;” he once recalled. “I fell in love with her instantly. And it sparked something; I started writing a lot of songs in a short time.”

Working with the band’s lead guitarist, Berton Averre, Doug soon had the piece finished and it debuted in 1979. Containing what is regarded by those who love fretboards as one of the finest bass-guitar riffs of its era, the song was an instant, international success and spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard 100.

It has now been parodied numerous times, appeared on the soundtrack of Ben Stiller’s 1994 film ‘Reality Bites,’ and was recently revealed as a favorite of former President Bush.

Sharona, meanwhile, is now a Realtor based in Los Angeles.

As the disco era faded so did the band. And from there life for Doug became both hard and unfair;

In 2005 he was diagnosed with lung cancer and had half of one lung removed to stop the disease. But it returned the next year as brain cancer, and in August of 2006 Doug underwent surgery to remove two major tumors. Chemotherapy and other treatments brought some success, but the disease finally claimed him at his Woodland Hills home yesterday.

Bruce Gary, the band’s drummer also died of cancer in 2006, aged just 55. But the remaining band members, Berton Averre [lead guitar] and Prescott Niles [bass] have since bid Doug farewell on the band’s official site.

“Our hearts are broken, we will miss you, Doug,” is now posted, according to the BBC.

If you’d been there when ‘Sharona’ debuted you’d feel the same way…

[Ry]

Doug's brother, Jeffrey is somewhat of a celebrity in Michigan . He is a well known attorney and attempted a run for Governor a few years ago. He defended Jack Kevorkian at one time.

The stations around here have reported his death was due to brain cancer-- I did not know he had lung cancer.