Douglas Lars "Doug" Fieger was an American singer-songwriter-musician.
Background
Fieger was born in 1952 at Oak Park, Michigan, the son of June Beth (née Oberer) and Bernard Julian Fieger. His father was Jewish, and his mother of Norwegian descent. Fieger was born and raised in the 9 Mile/Coolidge area of Oak Park, Michigan, a northern suburb of Detroit, and attended Oak Park High School.
Career
He was the lead singer of the rock band The Knack, and co-wrote "My Sharona", the biggest hit song of 1979 in the United States of America, with lead guitarist Berton Averre. Doug was the younger brother of Detroit attorney Geoffrey Fieger (most famous for representing Jack Kevorkian), who confirmed Doug"s death to The Detroit News. Before forming The Knack, Fieger played bass and sang lead in the group Sky, which was founded by producer Jimmy Miller (Rolling Stones, Traffic, Blind Faith), famous also for being the "Mr.
Jimmy" in the Stones "You Can"t Always Get What You Want", while Fieger was still in high school.
Sky recorded two albums for Radio Corporation of America Records, in 1970 and 1971, produced by Miller with Andy Johns (Led Zeppelin). Fieger also played bass guitar in the German progressive rock band Triumvirat for a short period in 1974.
In addition to performing, Fieger also produced the Rubber City Rebels" debut album for Capitol Records and another album for the Los Angeles–based band, Mystery Population He and Rebels drummer Brandon Matheson had been bandmates in The Sunset Bombers and had one album released on Ariola Records, before Fieger formed The Knack.
The band played its first gig at Hollywood"s Whisky A Go-Go nightclub on June 1, 1978 and were discovered playing Los Angeles–area nightclubs, including The Troubadour in West Hollywood.
They were signed by Capitol Records in early 1979. "My Sharona" spent six straight weeks at Number. 1 on Billboard"s Hot 100 in 1979 and was the biggest hit of the year.
Fifteen years later the track gained renewed interest when it was featured in the film Reality Bites.
lieutenant was also featured regularly in a Saturday Night Live skit parodying Janet Reno. The follow-up hit to "My Sharona," "Good Girls Don"t," stopped one notch short of the Top 10, peaking at Number.
11, while Get The Knack spent five straight weeks at Number. 1 and eventually sold 3 million copies in the United States and 6 million worldwide.
Additionally, Fieger provided lead vocals on two tracks on Was (Not Was)"s 1983 album Born to Laugh at Tornadoes.
Shortly before his death, he provided lead vocals for the track "Dirty Girl", from Bruce Kulick"s 2010 album BK3. "Dirty Girl" was named 29th song of 2010 by Classic Rock.