‘My Sharona’ is still kickin’ it

The hard-driving song by The Knack – “My Sharona” – released in 1979…is a rock’n’roll standard that will “never, no never” lose its edge.

The song launched the successful career of real estate agent Sharona Alperin, who is affiliated with Sotheby’s International Realty in West Hollywood, Calif.

Alperin is the Sharona from the song, and also “M-M-My Mom Sharona,” wrote daughter Eden Burkow for a recent article in Variety magazine.

“My Sharona” was the biggest hit song in 1979, and still, “nary a day goes by without hearing it on the radio,” Burkow wrote.

“My mom’s mostly typical life of a teenager in Los Angeles transformed practically overnight. As the girl with the piercing blue eyes pictured on the cover of the 1979 record, she was the muse of The Knack singer Doug Fieger and his good luck charm,” Burkow said.

Sharona Alperin said: “When Doug met me, I was working at a clothing store. I was about 17. I was so in love with fashion and wanted to work in fashion. But once I met Doug, I practically became frozen in time, and basically lived in and out of a suitcase both in L.A. and while touring the world. I was really just going with the flow of life.”

Alperin said the first time she heard the band play “My Sharona” she was “on my lunch break; I went to a rehearsal” and heard Burton Averee, the lead guitarist, and Fieger discussing: “Should we play it? Should we play it? All right, let’s play it for her.”

“I hoped she’d be flattered with ‘My Sharona,’” Fieger said glibly.

Burkow quoted her mother as saying: “I think the wildest memory continues to be driving back to work, and thinking to myself, ‘Did I really just hear a band perform a song with my name in it?! Is this for real?’”

Fieger had moved to Los Angeles in 1978 from Oak Park, Mich. “He was nine years older than me,” Alperin said. “And within a month or two later, he told me, ‘I’m in love with you, you’re my soulmate, you’re my other half; we’re going to be together one day.’”

Fieger told the Associated Press in 1994 that he was “extremely taken with” Sharona Alperin. “I had never met a girl like her – ever,” he said. “Sharona induced madness. She had a powerful presence. She was very self-assured. She…drove me crazy.” Their connection was “good chemistry,” he added.

Alperin and Fieger had parted ways by the time she was 21, she said, but they remained close friends.

When Fieger was fighting lung cancer in 2009-10, Alperin went to see him frequently in his final months. “A lot of his idols, people that meant so much to him in the music industry, came to pay their respects to him,” she said. “And it was really beautiful.”

Alperin was one of the people at Fieger’s side during his last days. He died Feb. 14, 2010, at age 57.

“My Sharona re-entered the Billboard chart in 1994 when it was released as a single from the soundtrack of the Ben Stiller film “Reality Bites,” starring Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke.

“My Sharona” gained attention again in 2005 when it was reported that President George W. Bush had the song on his personal iPod. Mark McKinnon, who was a personal advisor to the president, was responsible for including “My Sharona.” The two men would exercise together on their mountain bikes, while listening to tunes.

“No one should psychoanalyze the song selection,” McKinnon said. “It’s music to get over the next hill.”

The “My Sharona” beat is pulsating and pounding…sure to make any dagnabbit cyclist’s motor run.

Today, Sharona Alperin is one of Sotheby’s top agents, specializing in serving the housing needs of entertainment industry clients. Her residential listings (on the day of this writing) ranged from a 1-bedroom condominium unit priced at $639,000 to a 6-bedroom home on the market for $7,988,000. M-M-My oh my.