From the “I had no idea these were real people” file, the NY Daily News has tracked down Rikki, Sharona, and Rosalita.  

Yes – the ones of Steely Dan, the Knack, and Bruce fame:

“Rikki” did lose that number. “My Sharona” has a Web site.

“Rosalita” hooked up with Bruce Springsteen at the beach – as her boyfriend “Wild Billy” drank with his buddies nearby.

I figured there had to be stories behind them…:

Four decades after she briefly met Steely Dan rocker Donald Fagen, Rikki DuCornet still cannot escape the song written for her.

“I notice it walking into a sushi bar, going into a drugstore. Take an airplane, there it is,” DuCornet, 65, told More. “It’s become a constant, something to hold onto.”

After nearly thirty years of listening to Elton John’s “The Mitch is Back”, I feel her pain.

The woman who inspired the 1979 anthem “My Sharona” was a gorgeous high school senior with a killer body when a co-worker brought a boyfriend, the lead singer from an unknown band called the Knack, into the boutique where she worked.

Sharona Alperin wound up modeling for the cover of the band’s 6 million-selling record – and dated the rock star for four years.

Dating Doug Fieger?  Ewww.

Er, on second thought, maybe that’s all she deserves:

She was shocked and dismayed to find out that her namesake song is on President Bush’s iPod. “Couldn’t I be on Bill Clinton’s?” she moaned.

Bwahahaha.  You’re on mine, too.  Deal.

OK – so the cool part…:

Rosalita’s real name was Diane Lozito and she met the Boss in 1971 at a show at the Jersey Shore when he was an up-and-coming rocker.

Lozito, now a location scout, was actually the inspiration for more than one Springsteen tune. The story of their first kiss – behind a rock on the beach while her boyfriend was nearby – is retold in “Spirit in the Night.”

Soon “Wild Billy” was out of the picture. Springsteen and Lozito moved in together over her parents’ objections – “I know your mama, she don’t like me ’cause I play in a rock and roll band” – but split up after four years.

Wow.

Cool.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 6:59 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.