Saturday 9

Saturday 9: My Sharona (1979)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

 

1) The Knack's lead singer Doug Fieger wrote this song for his girlfriend, Sharona Alperin. That's Sharona on the record sleeve shown here. Who took the most recent photo of you? One of the other guests at the birthday party I attended a couple weeks ago.

2) Today Sharona Alperin is a realtor in Southern California. (The photo on her website is more demure than the recored sleeve.) She specializes in high-end properties. Have you ever attended an open house, not because you were interested in purchasing the property but because you were curious about the inside? Yes. I didn't realize this was a thing until I visited a coworker who had moved to the Dallas area. He and his wife did this every weekend and invited me to go along. I thought it was a little weird. I mean, I had no intention of moving to Dallas and even if I did, the luxury abode of my dreams would be a high rise with a nice view of the city, not the sprawling suburban behemoths we toured. But when it Rome (or Texas) ...

3) Doug Fieger's brother is Geoffrey Fieger, a prominent attorney in Detroit. Have you ever consulted a lawyer? Yes, regarding my mother's final affairs and my own will.

 

4) The Knack's record producer was Jimmy Miller, who also worked with The Rolling Stones. What's your favorite Rolling Stones song? I'm not a big Rolling Stones fan, but I love this very short (barely 2 mins.) song from the album Tattoo You. Every once in a while you just gotta say what the hell and hang fire.

5) In 1994, more than a decade after its initial release, "My Sharona" became popular with a new audience because it was included on the soundtrack of the movie Reality Bites. What's the most recent movie you watched? The Best of Everything. It's a melodrama from the late 1950s about three girls who come to New York in search of adventure and love. It's soapy and absurdly dated and I love it. 

From an early scene of The Best of Everything. Love Caroline's gloves.

6) President George W. Bush said he loved listening to "My Sharona" on his headphones while riding his bike. Do you often have music on when you exercise? Well, they play music in the yoga studio. I don't like it -- it sounds like wind-chimey spa music -- but it's on and maybe it does relax me.

 

7) In 1979, when this song was popular, the CBS TV show Alice was a hit. It was about a widowed mom who made ends meet working in a diner. Have you ever worked at a restaurant? Nope.

 

8) Also in 1979, the Voyager spacecraft sent back photos of Jupiter and its rings. Without looking it up, can you name all the planets in our solar system? Mercury, Earth, Saturn, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Pluto (or not). How did I do?

9) Random question: If you could erase your most painful day from your memory, would you do it? No. I certainly don't want to relive it, and I'm glad I got past it, but it helped me make me who I am.