So what’s your daddy up to these days?

If he’s anything like the “daddy” portrayed in the lyrics of “Unholy,” the hit single by Sam Smith and Kim Petras, he might have some explaining to do.

Released in September of 2022, I can’t recall exactly where I heard it first. I think I was scanning chart listings and saw it there for the first time (probably in October of ’22, when it entered the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at No. 3). And like I try to do for every new song I see, I gave it a listen.

And lemme tell ya, I had a bit of a chuckle; I found it so very over-the-top! But that’s not a bad thing; most the music I like is way over-the-top (hard to feel differently if you grew up in the ’80s loving the New Wave music scene).

With “Unholy,” Smith and Petras (and all the other credited writers) craft a searing, salacious tale of adultery in what sounds like seedy circumstances. The lyrics tell the tale: “Mummy don’t know daddy’s getting hot / At the body shop, doing something unholy / He’s sat back while she’s dropping it, she be popping it / Yeah, she put it down slowly…”

What’s going on here? Mom doesn’t know where dad is? And dad’s getting hot? At a place called the body shop?? Damn, I dunno… sounds like dad might be chillin’ at the local strip joint after work (I wonder if he’s grabbing a 6-pack for the road on these trips, too?).

“Unholy,” the second single from Smith’s 2023 album Gloria, has all the synth pop hallmarks, with an eerie electronic bass slowly pumping under Smith’s and Petras’s vocals, assisted by a church-like chorus on the actual chorus (quite the contrast, isn’t it?). It eventually reached that coveted No. 1 position on the Hot 100, surpassing Smith’s previous peak, set in 2014 when “Stay with Me” reached No. 2 (remember that one? The one that sounds a lot like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “I Won’t Back Down”?).

When I preview tracks for potential inclusion in my DJ sets, I note the songs I think might work where I’m playing. I didn’t mark “Unholy” as something to include at the Top 40/open-format club I play at most the time (a lot of pop, some dance, tons of hip hop, a country track here and there, a classic rock drop). When a patron requested it a few weeks after it came out, I wasn’t excited about the suggestion. I like the song (usually a good reason to not play it at the club), but I didn’t think anyone else would.

So during a lull in the night, I dropped “Unholy” (the straight-up single version) on my unsuspecting audience, and wow! When that opening chorus hit (Mummy don’t know daddy’s getting hot…), I heard screams from the booth, saw hands go in the air, and the dancefloor fill with excitement.

People love this track!

And not just adults; I attended my young nephew’s birthday party a few weeks back. When his parents put on his favorite music, “Unholy” was the first song on the playlist (“He loves this song,” my brother and sister-in-law said with a laugh). He turned 3 that day and is blissfully unaware of the song’s content. (Not that it matters; I can’t even tell what they’re saying in half the song without looking at the lyric sheet.)

But that simply shows how catchy the melody and harmonies are. Change the lyrics to something completely different and that earworm can still get stuck in your head.

Whether you love it or hate it, over-the-top music has a way of staying with you.