From "The Song Is You … for the Rest of Your Life/What’s it like to be name-checked by Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Amy Winehouse, et al? We asked, among others, 'our' Sharona" by Katie Bishop (NYT).
I'm trying to figure out how old Alperin was when this relationship began. The NYT does not give her age, and Wikipedia says: "When Doug Fieger was 25 years old, he met 17-year-old Sharona Alperin..."
That's an 8 year difference, but Alperin says 11 years. Does that mean Alperin was 14 when Fieger took her to lunch and professed his love?
Wikipedia links to a 2005 WaPo article that is based on an interview with Fieger. He says: "Sharona was 17. I was 25 when I wrote the song. But the song was written from the perspective of a 14-year-old boy. It's just an honest song about a 14-year-old boy." Hmm. There's that number: 14.
WaPo didn't go looking for the real Sharona. Its interest at the time was George W. Bush. The contents of his iPod — remember those? — had been revealed and one of his songs was "My Sharona." WaPo says:
The New York Times revealed the presidential penchant for "My Sharona" -- about an underage vixen -- in a story about Bush's iPod mix last week.Yikes. 2005 was so long ago. Imagine seeing "underage vixen" blithely tossed out like that today!
But back then, WaPo saw it as an exciting way to get at George Bush. Think of him, listening to the lyrics "Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind/Always get it up for the touch of the younger kind." WaPo prints out those lines.
But what about the NYT today going back to "My Sharona"? It's no longer about kicking around George Bush. It's just a way to crank out some kind of pop culture article. It's interesting that Sharona is a real estate agent and people hearing her name are forever singing the song to her and not thinking that she is the girl in the song. But why didn't "but he was 11 years older" trigger some curiosity over there at the NYT? Whatever happened to feminism? It comes and goes! It's discovered and forgotten, over and over again.
Speaking of Presidents, why are we, right now, slipping into a time of forgetting? #MeToo arose in 2017, the first year of the Trump presidency.
ADDED: In 2010, NPR quoted Sharona Alperin, speaking of first meeting Fieger: "I was about 16 or 17 at the time. He was nine years older than me." 9 years older back then, but 11 years older now? How did that happen?
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55 comments:
The easiest explanation is bad memories. She's forgotten exactly how old he was. That's my most charitable read.
Melania Trump never made the cover of any fashion magazine. Kamala Harris is already on the cover of Vogue.
Isn't she lovely?
Feminism. Isn't it wonderful..
My Sharona is easily the ugliest, most obnoxious pop song I’ve ever played. There is a sort of genius in its sledge hammer awfulness. You can’t forget it.
That thump thump thump hook is loathsome.
There are few song I can say I simply despise. My Sharona is at the top of the list. If a song could be unwritten and disappeared, My Sharona should be.
I never heard it, so it wasn't everywhere. Typical nothing-music.
Why does the media indulge this woman every 3-5 years. She’s been seeking attention with this stuff on a regular basis for twenty years (or more). Kinda sad, frankly, being careful with my estimates as Ann will be on Lexis/Nexis fact checking me.
Back in pre-history, when interaction with real people was allowed, I was a music biz whore, i.e., I jammed with anybody who wanted to play... a lifelong habit.
I played My Sharona with what I regarded as a kid band (they were in their late 30s and early 40s). That band specialized in ugly as hell songs with mean as hell lyrics about love.
They also did the one about finding the girl’s name on the public bathroom wall.
That band’s repertoire was a testament to just how hateful and ugly the battle of the sexes had become for that generation.
9 years older back then, but 11 years older now? How did that happen?
Retcon.
And imagine if George W had had a reputation for grabbing on to young girls and squeezing their shoulders and whispering in their ear. My Sharona indeed.
I wonder how many people younger than the age of 60 associate the name Sharona with the show "Monk" and not with the song.
Every kid of school age when it was released is still infected with this wormear but I don't think any of us could recite all the lyrics then or now. Until this morning I had no idea the words had meaning. I thought it was musical dada...
She’s on the cover of the album. Wow!
In the running for worst song ever.
My Corona.
I wonder how many people younger than the age of 60 associate the name Sharona with the show "Monk" and not with the song.
I associate the name with "Sharon A***", whose email address was sharona@whatever; I thought it was a fake name until seeing it on Monk, which suffered greatly when Sharona was replaced by tepid Natalie.
Reposted from the stupid book post...
For a time The Knack would give your team the victory on pub trivia night.
...come up with M and you're a trivia god.
When Doug Fieger was 25 years old, he met 17-year-old Sharona Alperin..."
well, (for the sake of argument), let's take this as true
one half of 25 is 12 and a half; 12 and a half Plus 7 is OVER NINETEEN
by definition: CREEPY
Who the heck did this Pervert think he was? Jerry Sinfeld
But why didn't "but he was 11 years older" trigger some curiosity over there at the NYT?
Because that's math. Also, it would have meant writing an entirely different article and maybe even been handed off to someone on another beat.
I remember the older rocker chick I had a crush on wore a Nuke The Knack button.
Later, a group of us were in my car going to the drive-in theater when, in the back seat, she went topless for a few moments as she changed into a Siouxie and the Banshees T-shirt; I am still surprised I didn't crash the car.
I am Laslo.
She’s shaving years off her own age now that Doug’s dead and his obit has fixed his age for posterity. Hers is still malleable. Real estate agents are generally lying sales scum anyway. On the TV show Monk his sidekick for the first three seasons was named Sharona and a running gag was people asking her if she was THAT Sharona. Pop culture grows more and more self-referential over time.
Fernandinande said...I wonder how many people younger than the age of 60 associate the name Sharona with the show "Monk" and not with the song.
I associate the name with "Sharon A***", whose email address was sharona@whatever; I thought it was a fake name until seeing it on Monk, which suffered greatly when Sharona was replaced by tepid Natalie.
I never considered Sharona might be a real person. Like with the Steve Miller Band, the lyrics were so dumb I figured they were just words that had the right number of syllables and rhymed.
Agreed that Monk got worse when Sharona left, though that may be a coincidence. Monk was the adult version of Encyclopedia Brown and after a few seasons, the formula got too stale to be enjoyable.
Did Monk’s character become “stale” or was Sharona’s replacement simply lacking in personality and it factor in comparison to Biddy Shram?
The formula got stale.
Carrie Fisher took up with Paul Simon for a few years. She was miffed that he never wrote a catchy tune celebrating their love or her beauty. I wonder if Doug Fieger's other girlfriends ever nagged him to write a song immortalizing her.
On a woman, it's a tank top. On a man, some would call it a wifebeater.
It's not about the article of clothing, it's about who happens to be wearing it.
That was the summer I was between real jobs, working at the Radio Shack at the mall. My Sharona came out of a speaker somewhere about every four minutes, and there was a constant stream of young women on the way to or from the beach strolling through the mall entrance door placed adjacent to our wall of resistors.
Then my father died, and everything changed. That's a different story.
According to Wikipedia Doug Fieger is the brother of Geoffrey Fieger, Jack Kevorkian’s lawyer.
There was a bumper sticker in Hollywood back then. “Honk if you did Sharona”
9 years older back then, but 11 years older now? How did that happen?
"Math is hard."
-Barbie
9 years older back then, but 11 years older now? How did that happen?
She's lying about her age now?
great post
How did that happen? Memories are malleable. Especially if you have a tendency to exaggerate stories. Curated memories?
9 years older back then, but 11 years older now?
Maybe she spent a lot of time as an astronaut.
"That's an 8 year difference, but Alperin says 11 years. Does that mean Alperin was 14 when Fieger took her to lunch and professed his love? "
Hey AA, I realize you're a law professor and not a math professor, but when they met doesn't change their birthdays.
11 years is 11 years...
"That thump thump thump hook is loathsome."
It may be brutal and not to your liking, but it is a hell of a hook.
I'm guessing it's a hook that made them tens of millions of dollars.
Not bad for loathsome.
I should care??? No.
"They also did the one about finding the girl’s name on the public bathroom wall."
Nobody claimed it was Shakespeare...it was pop music...in the decade of excess.
2:50 and out. Cash a big check and move on.
Were you under the illusion that you were playing with the Vienna Philharmonic?
If you're a musician, I can't believe that you're not impressed with the brilliance of the 867-5309 hook, even if it's not your 'style.'
Ask anyone in their early 60s what Jenny's phone number is, and 40 years later (Jesus, I'm old) they will tell you. Now that's a hook!
It's not art, but it's fucking brilliant nonetheless.
Springsteen comes to mind. Biggest phony on the planet, but the man can write a tune. I admire the talent, not the man.
"I thought it was a fake name until seeing it on Monk, which suffered greatly when Sharona was replaced by tepid Natalie."
Sharona was sassy but Natalie was hot.
My .02.
“Teenage Vixen” does create a certain .... image.
Kylos — The Feiger boys grew up in Oak Park, Mich. At the time a largely Jewish neighborhood north of Detroit. Jeff Feiger was a roadie for The Crazy World of Arthur Brown!
"Ma, ma, ma my Sharona" is more about alliteration than possessiveness.
I believe the age difference discrepancy can best be explained by using the female's perspective on the "Dazed and Confused" epigram by Wooderson: "That's what I love about these High School chicks man, I get older, they stay the same age."
She was 7 years younger when 17, then 9 years younger a few years later, then finally 11 years younger. In another decade she will have been 13 years younger, way back then.
It could be that she misremembered one or more times. I don't know that I could accurately state the age differences between myself and the people I dated before I was married. I could see thinking it was one number of years and then later thinking it was a different number of years.
"9 years older back then, but 11 years older now? How did that happen?"
Modern Math? Relativity Theory?
I remember dancing to "My Sharona". In 1980. That was not exactly last week.
Interesting story behind the Big Hit. Thanks.
She probably never knew how old Fieger was.
"My Sharona" is simply one of the greatest songs in the history of rock and roll. It was, at the time of its release in 1979, a kind of throwback to the music of a decade or so earlier. I have used it in my mind as the marker for the end of the disco era, even though disco continued pretty strong until the end of 1980.
Shouting Thomas said...
“I played My Sharona with what I regarded as a kid band (they were in their late 30s and early 40s). That band specialized in ugly as hell songs with mean as hell lyrics about love.”
Run For Your Life
My Sharona is the song on my early teen years.
My mother had gotten a job and saved up enough money to take us on a vacation. We stayed at Robert's Cottages in Oceanside. I was 13 and my sister was 15. Our parents gave us the run of the beach. There were only two restrictions. There was a sketchy hotel between the Cottages and the Pier (utilized frequently but only for short periods of time by the Pendleton marines). We weren't allowed to walk across the front of the hotel alone or to lie on the beach directly in front of the hotel.
It was the summer of 1979 and there was a skateboard competition at the Oceanside Pier. This song was played for some of the freestyle routines. The crowd was a mix of skateboarders, surfers, and marines. The energy was unbelievable. Excitement mixed with tension, because these groups didn't always play nicely together.
Looking back on that time it is unbelievable that we (myself, my sister, and the two friends we were allowed to bring) were running around singing Good Girls Don't and Frustrated. But I guess every generation has its Darling Nikki.
All I can say is that there were fewer amateur mathematicians back in those days.
Speaking of Presidents, why are we, right now, slipping into a time of forgetting?
Is that a real question? The "speaking of Presidents" makes me think not.
"9 years older back then, but 11 years older now?"
Perhaps some people have a need to present themselves as much younger than their spouse, and this need becomes greater as they grow older.
Here's a piece that argues that "My Sharona" helped kill disco. So it's got that going for it.
How is it, that i'm the 1st person here to quote
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.
???
I can identify with this story myself. For years hearing a common phrase I had something to do with it's coinage, which coinage itself, is uncommon knowledge.
But what about the NYT today going back to "My Sharona"? It's no longer about kicking around George Bush.
What about it? If there’s a way to use something — anything! — to beat up on a prominent Republican then that something becomes momentarily important. Otherwise not.
Whatever happened to feminism?
There is no such thing as “feminism.” It winks into existence when it can be used (make that ABused) to advance a hard core Democrat or knock a Republican, otherwise it doesn’t exist at all. You are old enough to remember when Bob Packwood got run out of the Senate for much less than what Joe Biden did on national TV. You you couldn’t bring yourself to vote against him, could you?
In the Netflix series, "Waco", David Koresh's band plays "My Sharona", with the cult leader on lead guitar.
I prefer My Bologna variation
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