Get The Knack

The Knack: Doug Feiger (vocals, guitar); Berton Averre (guitar); Prescott Niles (bass); Bruce Gary (drums). Producer: Mike Chapman. Reissue producers: Doug Feiger, Lee Lodyga. Originally released on Capitol (11948). Includes liner notes by Scott Schinder. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Fans had been getting The Knack on the West Coast with frenzied live performances long before GET THE KNACK seemingly took over the world for that brief moment in 1979. What attracted the fans and the stars for that matter (Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Eddie Money all jumped onstage with the band in the late '70s) was the absolute hedonism of the band's percolating power pop. The Knack has no underlying message. It trumpets no social agenda. In short, The Knack promises nothing except joyous bursts of three-minute pop songs. The six million copies that GET THE KNACK sold is an inarguable testament that the rest of the world wanted to join the fun too. Drawing from the power pop bedrock of Buddy Holly, The Beatles, The Who, and the Kinks, the album charges with a gust that deflates the self-important sails of nearly every overblown '70s progressive rock monolith. The hammering "My Sharona" became the band's signature single. Full of relentless tension and adolescent lust, it is the template of the group's approach. However, the lesser known "Good Girls Don't" mines the same hormone-driven territory with the same, if not more effective, aplomb.