The song was the brain child of rhythm guitarist Benton Averre. The tune had been bouncing around in his brain for almost five years. When he joined The Knack he played the instrumental elements of the song to Doug Fieger (died 2/14/2010) the lead guitarist and singer in the band. He loved it, but the group still had no lyrics to go with the catchy tune.

Doug and Benton sat down and wrote those lyrics in 15 minutes. The inspiration was a real woman named Sharona who was the girlfriend of Benton. At first Benton didn’t like the idea of using his girlfriend’s real name in the song but became convinced that it fit the beat so well that it had to be used. She even became the cover of the singles sleeve that is pictured.

The song itself was a bit of a throwback to the 60’s Rock with some more modern elements mixed in. Listen and you will hear a bit of “Gimme Some Lovin’” by the Spencer Davis Group and a little “My Generation” by The Who. That is especially true of the stuttering of “muh muh muh my Sharona” Like so many other songs the elements of the song were turned upside down and backwards so it had its own identity.

The success of the song led to high expectations for another hit single. That was never to be. The song itself has been rived a couple of times over the years thanks to movies and TV. In 2008, "My Sharona" was ranked in two Billboard 50th anniversary charts. It ranked 75 on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Song and 16 on the Top Billboard Hot 100 Rock Songs. So what happened to the woman who inspired the song? Sharona Alperin lives and works in real estate in Los Angeles. She has her own website with the domain of mysharona.com. The song is even played as you open the front page of the site.