I was still in middle school but I can still remember when their song "My Sharona" hit the airwaves and took the world by storm! I of course really loved it too, and when I had saved up enough money, (I think at the time 45's were still 75¢), made my way to the local record shop Harry's Music to buy it, only to come up to the Top 40 singles bin and see THIS Image on the cover of the My Sharona 45:
You have to understand, I was still a kid in intermediate school and I said to myself, "There ain't NO WAY I'm walking up to the counter with THAT record cover in my hands! Funny, how much I love my Beach Bunnies and Bikinis nowadays, back then that cover was just TOO MUCH!
As an adult I was to learn that the sexy model gracing the cover of that bawdy 45 was in fact THE Sharona that song was written for, a Ms. Sharona Alperin, which was very cool! But it made no difference for the young me, and in the end, I had to wait until I could make a trip to Woolworth's where they (thankfully) had the My Sharona single available in the regular PLAIN black sleeve, HAHAHA!
A lot of people regard The Nack as a "One Hit Wonder" outfit, however, anyone who was a fan of pop music back then can probably tell you they had quite a few more hits, including the cymbal pinging classic "Good Girls Don't"...
.. and the cool, bluesy "Can't Put A Price On Love", ALL singles we bought and cherished!
BTW, if I thought that picture sleeve for My Sharona was racy, imagine my surprise when I heard the ALBUM version of "Good Girls Don't" for the first time: On the single/radio version of the song, there's a line that goes:
"An in-between age madness that you know you can't erase- when she puts you in your place"
BUT, on the ALBUM version, it goes:
An in-between age madness that you know you can't erase- til she's sitting on your face!"
WHAAAA! I remember staring at the stereo with my jaw dropped- these dirty-minded guys did it again! Of course as we got older those songs just became cooler and cooler, and I remember being in a band with my friend Larry who also loved the Knack, and we did our OWN cover version of "Good Girls Don't"...complete with naughty lyrics! LOL
