Doug Fieger, lead singer of rock band the Knack

DOUG Fieger was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the band the Knack, whose enduring 1979 hit My Sharona became an emblem of the new wave era in rock and was a prime example of the brevity of pop fame.

With a six-week run at No 1 in the United States – it reached No 6 in Britain – My Sharona was a big hit of the summer of 1979. Built on a simple riff, the song, by Fieger and the band's lead guitarist, Berton Averre, celebrated teenage lust in unabashed terms. "When you gonna give it to me?" Fieger sang in the impatient whine that was his hallmark.

The song, written about a 17-year-old high school student who had caught the eye of 26-year-old Fieger, came to symbolise the commercial arrival of new wave, the poppier, snazzier-dressed cousin of punk rock. (That girl, Sharona Alperin, is now a high-end estate agent in Los Angeles.)

With a carefully executed marketing plan, the members of the Knack seemed to position themselves as a new Beatles, adopting a uniform of white shirts and skinny black ties, even recreating a group pose from the film A Hard Day's Night for the back cover of their debut album, Get the Knack, which topped the US charts but didn't even make the UK top 40, peaking at No 65.

The band's cocky behaviour was interpreted as hubris by the rock press, and many critics called the lyrics misogynistic or worse. "Compared to Doug Fieger, Rod Stewart is a paragon of sexual humility," Dave Marsh wrote in a Rolling Stone review of the band's second album, …But the Little Girls Understand.

The Knack released another album, Round Trip, in 1981, and disbanded shortly thereafter, though since the early 1990s, the band, mostly reunited, had toured and recorded frequently. In 1994 My Sharona featured prominently in a scene in the Ben Stiller film Reality Bites and briefly re-entered the US chart.

Douglas Lars Fieger was born in Detroit; his mother was a teacher and his father a civil rights lawyer. He had his first taste of fame while still in high school. His band, Sky, was signed to RCA and recorded two albums with Jimmy Miller, then the Rolling Stones' preferred producer. Sky disbanded in 1973, and by 1978 Fieger had formed the Knack with Averre, drummer Bruce Gary and bassist Prescott Niles.

Things moved quickly. Reportedly wooed by more than a dozen record labels, the band signed with Capitol, which had also been the Beatles' label. Get the Knack, released in June 1979, was an instant US smash, going gold in two weeks and platinum in a month.

My Sharona, Fieger once said, had been written in 15 minutes.

He is survived by his former wife Mia, sister Beth and brother Geoffrey, a prominent lawyer.