Friday Nite Retro

Welcome to Friday Nite Retro - where everything old is new again! AS you can guess by the album cover to your right, tonight I'm asking you to "get the Knack". Just in case you were living under a rock (or had successfully removed all traces of the band from your cranium), here's a brief history:

The Knack was a Los Angeles-based rock band that rose to fame with their first single, "My Sharona", an international hit in 1979 . It also spawned an early Weird Al Yankovich parody entitled "My Bologna".

My Sharona


My Bologna


The power pop of "My Sharona", coupled with the band's "retro" 1970s new wave look, earned the band comparisons to the early Beatles. Many music critics of the era disliked disco, which dominated the music industry at the time, and were, at best, coolly receptive to other developing genres like punk rock, hip hop and heavy metal music. The Knack's power pop and hard rock influences earned them some critical credibility. They were also vilified by some critics for their misogynistic lyrics.

Good Girls Don't


After subsequent albums, there was a critical backlash against the band and they broke up amidst internal squabbles. They have re-united periodically over the years and in 2001 put out a studio album Normal As The Next Guy and a live DVD Live From The Rock N'Roll Funhouse. As of 2005, The Knack are still active and play at various venues.

Baby Talks Dirty


The surviving members of The Knack have filed a lawsuit against popular rap music group Run DMC for copyright infringement. The lawsuit alleges that the defining guitar riff from "My Sharona" was used without permission in the Run DMC track "It's Tricky" from their 1986 album "Raising Hell." The amount of damages sought is currently unspecified; however, considering the number of albums Run DMC has distributed over the last 20 years containing the specified track, the dollar figure could potentially be quite high.

It's Tricky


Drop by and visit the Knack's Official Site!