Michael - Thanks for the post. I'm so out of it, I had never heard of CarPark North. Listening to their full song now, i can definitely understand why someone thought of My Sharona. Almost a ripoff of it. https://vimeo.com/15975233 The video is quite interesting. But, when I tried to find this video on Youtube. the only version I found, kept cutting away to the lead singer, which ruins the video, IMHO. - Mark, On 4/29/2019 11:09 AM, Michael MacLauchlan wrote: > One of my fav mash ups... CarPark North's Human and My Sharona.. Let's see > if this works: > > https://tinyurl.com/y5gzjh8u > > or > > https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ztg1lq93q4yj63/Best%20Of%20Monkey%20Business%20Bastard%20May%20-%2015%20-%20Carpark%20North%20Vs.%20The%20Knack%20-%20My%20Human%20Sharona.mp3?dl=0 > > Enjoy. > > Michael Mac > Denver > > > > On Sun, Apr 28, 2019 at 10:13 PM Mark London wrote: > >> By Don Steinberg >> April 24, 2019 9:52 a.m. ET >> >> Even now, approaching the 40th anniversary of the biggest single of >> 1979, Sharona Alperin can’t escape it. >> >> “Oh my God, almost daily, almost anytime someone hears my name,” Ms. >> Alperin says. “They say ‘Oh, like ‘My Sharona?’ And then they say, ‘Oh, >> I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to say that. You probably hear that all the >> time.’ ” >> >> They have no idea. She’s not just a Sharona. She’s the Sharona, the >> object of the Knack’s bopping 1979 hit “My Sharona.” The band’s lead >> singer, Doug Fieger, wrote the song’s lustful lyrics about her when she >> was 17 and he was 26. >> >> “Half the time I’ll say that’s me, and most of them don’t believe it,” >> says Ms. Alperin, who today sells high-end real estate around Los >> Angeles. She tells people that was her in the revealing white undershirt >> on the sleeve of the “My Sharona” 45. The single sold 500,000 copies, >> going gold within weeks of its June 1979 release. >> >> “My Sharona” has never gone away. Ben Stiller built a memorable scene >> around the song in his 1994 directorial debut, “Reality Bites,” claiming >> it for Generation X. Nirvana did a grunge version. The tune was reported >> to be on President George W. Bush’s iPod in 2005. These days hipster >> bands like Royal Blood play covers of the song. It still has life on >> classic rock radio stations, terrestrial and satellite, streaming >> services and with college pep bands and party DJs. >> >> It’s an odd kind of fame, being the person in the song. >> >> “There was a time where if I met anybody younger whose name was Sharona, >> I’d say, ‘I just want you to know: You were named after me. It’s no big >> deal, I just want you to know,’ ” Ms. Alperin says. “And they’re like, >> ‘Oh, my God, I totally was named after you.’ ” >> >> Capitol Records released the single “My Sharona,” along with “Get the >> Knack,” the debut LP from the Los Angeles-based band. The photo on the >> back showed the four skinny-tied Knack members posed in front of >> old-school TV cameras, as if ready to perform for Ed Sullivan, in a nod >> to the Beatles, another Capitol act. >> >> Rock critics mostly forgave the Beatles comparison. Billboard was among >> the publications praising the energy of the music at a time when >> crisp-sounding new-wave rock was on the rise. >> >> “It was just a great, utterly radio-friendly pop song that called back >> to the classic tunes of the British invasion,” says Simon Glickman, >> managing editor of music industry publication HITS magazine. “The >> energy, that guitar attack.” >> >> The Knack’s lead guitarist, Berton Averre, came up with the choppy riff >> that has made listeners pogo for decades. “I was listening to Elvis >> Costello’s second album, ‘This Year’s Model,’ and the drum break in >> ‘Pump It Up’ was so primal,” says Mr. Averre, whose soaring guitar solo >> also fills most of the song’s second half. “I picked up the guitar and >> played something as simplistic and staccato as I could.” >> >> “My Sharona” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart by August and >> stayed for six weeks. >> >> “It was on every minute,” Ms. Alperin recalls. “It was on the airplane. >> I’d get off the airplane, and it was in the cab. I’d get to the hotel, >> and the top 40 band in the lounge would be playing it.” >> >> “Get the Knack” separately went platinum, with a million copies sold. >> The Knack on stage in Chicago in 1979. Their song ‘My Sharona’ became >> the No. 1 song of the year. PHOTO: PAUL NATKIN/GETTY IMAGES >> >> Mr. Fieger had a mad crush on Ms. Alperin, who’d started attending Knack >> performances at L.A. clubs like the Troubadour and the Starwood before >> the band had a record deal. She says he chased her for a year, but she >> was happily in another relationship when the song came out. >> >> Mr. Fieger also wrote “Frustrated,” “(She’s So) Selfish,” and other >> songs on the debut album with her on his mind, Mr. Averre says. His >> lyrics were so suggestive that some of the lines feel inappropriate even >> to Google today. Mr. Fieger, who died in 2010, said he was writing from >> the perspective of a 14-year-old boy. >> >> “Lyrically, it was a truly hormonal record,” Mr. Glickman says. >> >> Mr. Fieger eventually did woo Sharona. They were together for three or >> four years, she says. The Knack issued a second album in 1980, and >> others later, but remained famous mostly for just one song. >> >> Ms. Alperin posed for the “My Sharona” single, and a photo of her became >> the cover of the Knack’s second album, titled “…But the Little Girls >> Understand.” >> >> “I literally am a girl who went to yeshiva—and then was plastered >> everywhere,” she says. “That was when a music store like Tower Records >> would have gigantic albums hung on the outside.” >> >> Her parents, she says, were cool about it. “And the band was accessible. >> They came over for Shabbat dinner.” >> Doug Fieger, lead singer of the Knack, backstage with Sharona Alperin, >> subject of many of his lyrics, in the early 1980s. PHOTO: SHARONA ALPERIN >> >> She enjoyed her time in the rock world. “I remember being at dinner with >> Cher and the Kiss guy [Gene Simmons]. I spoke Hebrew with him.” But she >> looks back with open eyes on those years dating an older rock star. >> >> “Is there a more possessive word than ‘my’?” she says now. “I mean, >> calling somebody ‘mine?’ ” >> >> She married someone else. Terri Nunn of the band Berlin sang “Take My >> Breath Away” at her wedding. Now Ms. Alperin is a single mom with a >> daughter, Eden, in college and a son, Adam, in high school. (Sharona is >> her middle name. Her given first name, which she never really used, is >> Eve.) >> >> She’s also a cancer survivor who kept working through 36 rounds of >> chemotherapy. “I didn’t want people to feel bad for me,” she says. “I >> live and breathe real estate, no joke, seven days a week. Of course >> people want to see a house on a Saturday. Of course there are Sunday >> open houses.” >> >> In 2002, she set up her real estate website at mysharona.com. Her office >> receives a steady flow of fan mail, ranging from flattering to creepy. >> While she was showing a house the other day, a package arrived >> containing a six-page letter plus three versions of her famous photo and >> a white tank-top undershirt to autograph. She signed it all. >> >> She hasn’t really tried to escape the song, just take control of what it >> means. >> >> “I remember people used to say, like, ‘Why are you breaking up with >> Doug?’ ” Ms. Alperin says. “I’d tell them, because I want to be my >> Sharona now.” >> >>