Checking in with the real Sharona

Sharona Alperin was a 17-year-old at Fairfax High School and the girlfriend of the lead singer, then 25, when The Knack's 1979 hit My Sharona made her name famous. For the last 20 years or so she has been a real estate agent on the Westside, currently with Sotheby's International Realty. She talks in a Times story about staying friends with Doug Fieger, who died of cancer last weekend. Also this:

To say that the song has marked Alperin's life is an understatement. Knack fans still mail her copies of the "My Sharona" single for her to autograph. The name prompts strangers to break into laughter or song. But in the world of luxury real estate, the cachet of having a hit song written for her has served as a unique marketing edge in a city filled with thousands of agents.

"You need to have a niche and anything like that that will help people remember you is certainly an asset; she actually has that intro music on her website," said Marc Giroux, a Realtor with Keller Williams Realty who has worked with Alperin.

Parody versions of the song have included My Bologna (Weird Al Yankovic), My Chalupa (Taco Bell) and My Scrotum (Cheech Marin.)