Maybe “My Sharona” Isn’t the Best Song to Play During the Passing Periods

“My Sharona” was a number one hit song of the late 1970s; released in 1979, the song peaked at the top of the Billboard Hot-100 charts. Of course, the 1970s was a very different time, and societal standards were very different. For example, even guitarist Jimmy Page was in a relationship with a 13-year-old groupie (yes, it’s as wrong as it sounds) at age 28. Iggy Pop even mentions in a song that he “Slept with Sable [Star] when she was 13.”

“My Sharona” is less predatory, although not by much. Sharona Alperin was 17 when she met the Knack’s lead vocalist Doug Fieger, then aged 25. Doing the math, when Doug Fieger was 18, Alperin was 10. Of course, the lyrics are a bit more suggestive than your typical 60s-70s love song, with lines like “Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind / I always get it up for the touch of the younger kind” being part of the songs anthemic chorus, now with a more sinister context; this line makes it entirely clear that her youthful age, not even old enough to buy alcohol in 1979, is a positive for Fieger.

Of course, the right to judge whether the real-world situation was predatory or not is neither here nor there for us on the outside looking in. While we in the modern world with the power of retrospect and scientific research can make our judgements with our knowledge about brain development, even Alperin herself stated that reflecting on the relationship she did not find it predatory. In fact, they continued to date for four years and the two remained friends well after the end of their relationship. Alperin even visited Fieger in his last days before his passing due to cancer. However, it is questionable whether this song is the kind of thing the school’s administration should be playing during between-periods, with the line “ I always get it up for the touch of the younger kind” reverberating through tiled halls, making references to the “dirty mind” of this 17-year-old girl, I wonder how members of the school administration would feel if a 17-year-old student in today’s world were to get picked up by a 25-year-old man.

I personally have a bone to pick with “My Sharona” beyond simply moral quandaries. “After the Love Has Gone” by Earth Wind & Fire was released that same year, and may have even topped the week’s charts had it not been for “My Sharona” taking the top spot. “After the Love Has Gone” is one of the most beautiful songs of the 70s, with a swirling composition and dazzling performance; it is a shame that such an annoying, ostensibly ephebophilic and creepy song could usurp a much better song’s place from the top spot, especially given that the lead singer of the Knacks looked like this. Ouch.