Knuke the Knack

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The Knack was a band best known for their single, “My Sharona,” which was released in 1979 on their album Get the Knack. The album spent six weeks at the top of Billboard’s Top 100 list and they were highly popular in the Los Angeles club scene. The band consisted of Doug Fieger, Bruce Gary, Prescott Niles, and Berton Averre.

Shortly after Get the Knack was released, the band began to receive criticism for similarities between their album art and that of The Beatles’ debut Meet the Beatles, which had been released in 1964. The also received a great deal of backlash based on their refusal to give interviews as well as the subject matter of some of their songs.

In 1979, not long after the album was released, San Francisco artist Hugh Brown began the “Knuke the Knack” movement as a way to poke fun at the band. He believed their popularity was “over-hyped” and that they had a manufactured sound. He produced and sold kits that included buttons, t-shirts and bumper stickers.