How One 1979 No. 1 Hit Sparked a Backlash So Savage It Destroyed the Band

One of the biggest No. 1 hits of 1979 didn't just dominate the charts. It completely took over pop culture at the time as radio stations almost seemed to play it on repeat. The track was such a huge success that it took its band from relative unknowns to one of the most discussed acts in music. As wonderful as that seemed at first, 'My Sharona' was such a big hit that its popularity would ultimately destroy The Knack.

The Knack's 'My Sharona' Became the Biggest Hit of 1979

Reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 is typically seen as the highest achievement for a single. But an even bigger honor comes annually when one song tops the Billboard Year-End Singles chart, meaning it was the best-selling track over those 12 months.

In 1979, 'My Sharona' by The Knack entered the Billboard Hot 100 on June 23 and climbed to No. 1 on August 25, where it stayed for six straight weeks. It went on to finish the year as the No. 1 song on the Billboard Year-End chart.

'My Sharona' Was So Successful That It Ruined The Knack

When a song explodes in popularity, radio stations tend to play it nonstop to keep their listeners tuning in. But that can quickly backfire, resulting in people becoming sick of the track as they begin to feel like it is being shoved down their throats. Unfortunately for The Knack, 'My Sharona' felt so inescapable at the height of its success that it sparked a strong negative response and major fallout for the band.

By August 1979, the backlash to 'My Sharona' had grown so fierce that The Washington Post ran a story about it. It revealed that critics of the band were accusing it of insincerity and insensitivity, with one Los Angeles writer dismissing their songs as "music for Ken and Barbie dolls, not for human beings." Things got even worse when a San Francisco conceptual artist named Hugh Brown became so fed up with 'My Sharona' that he launched a campaign against the band. He named his effort "Knuke the Knack."

A 2019 Ultimate Classic Rock article further detailed how the song became an albatross around the band's neck. It claimed that The Knack were labeled as arrogant by some and misogynistic by others because of their lust-filled lyrics. After describing the backlash, the outlet quoted the band's singer, Doug Fieger, describing how it felt. "How could it have changed so much that we were 'the glorious, the wonderful Knack' one minute, and we were this horrible, sell-out, commercial bullshit hype the next minute? It made me angry."

The Knack would go on to break up in 1982, with members pointing to internal tensions and the singer's alcoholism and chemical abuse as major factors. However, Ultimate Classic Rock's article about the band stated that The Knack never recovered from the intense backlash. Similarly, other retrospectives about the band, including one from Loudwire, report that the blowback they faced led to their follow-up albums flopping, which often is a death knell for bands.