95 Songs of Summer, #30 - "My Sharona" (1979)

Today, we'll head to another year that has yet to be represented in the big countdown, 1979 - a year when there was a lot going on in terms of the music scene.  Disco was probably at its peak, new wave/punk was starting to make a bit of a dent in the charts, and though it would be years (decades?) before the fans of those two genres would recognize the similarities in between them, they were both giving the pop charts a shot in the arm.

And then there was The Knack.  The Knack presented themselves as a Beatles for the next generation, right down to the matching costumes that they wore on the cover of their first album (and in many of their concerts).  At the same time, they were presented as being new wave, although they really weren't.  Truth be told, they were a bit (or a lot) on the clownish side, and it came as no big surprise that their career as a band fizzled out fairly quickly.  They weren't much more than a marketing ploy, and if the history of pop music has taught us anything, it's that it takes more than marketing to build a lasting career.

But none of that changes the greatness of "My Sharona."  A great single is a great single, no matter how shallow the artist may come across at times.  And this was, and remains so today, one great single.

"My Sharona," The Knack, from the summer of 1979.