To complete the Beatle imagery, the 1960s Capitol rainbow label adorned the LP, a detail the band had written into its contract.

In August, the album reached number one on the Billboard 200, where it remained for five weeks, and was certified platinum by the RIAA for one million copies sold.

[12] A backlash against the Knack's overnight success formed among critics who found the band's image too contrived and their attitude too brash.

San Francisco conceptual artist Hugh Brown, who had designed the Clash's Give 'Em Enough Rope album cover, started a "Knuke the Knack" campaign complete with T-shirts, buttons and bumper stickers.

One entertainment weekly, Scene magazine, refused to publish a review of the Knack's concert in Cleveland due to what it called "attempts at censorship" by the band's management.

[15] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice was critical of the album's misogynistic themes and remarked that if the Knack "felt this way about girls when they were unknowns, I shudder to think how they're reacting to groupies."

However, Christgau countered critics who had dismissed the band on "purely technical terms", arguing that "if they're less engaging musically than, say, the Scruffs, they have a lot more pop and power going for them than, say, the Real Kids.

"[8] Trouser Press noted the negative portrayal of the female protagonists of certain songs and singled out "Maybe Tonight" as "bottom-of-the-barrel sap", but praised "My Sharona", "Let Me Out" and "Frustrated" as "tight guitar pop.