My Sharona became the soundtrack of the summer ... Vox amplifiers and monogrammed bass drum head. That was in keeping with the black-and-white LP artwork that nodded to Meet The Beatles.

When The Knack started, I wrote songs about girls,” the late frontman told me in 2008. “I think girls is really what rock’n’roll is about.” Indeed, every song on the band’s 1979 debut album Get The ...