Your Daddy Don't Know

"Your Daddy Don't Know"
Song by Toronto
from the album Get It on Credit
Released	1982
Genre	Hard Rock Pop Rock
Length	3:17
Label	Network, Solid Gold Records
Songwriter(s)	Geoffrey Iwamoto Michael Roth

"Your Daddy Don't Know (What Your Mama's Gonna Do Tonight)" is a song by the Canadian rock band Toronto, from their 1982 album Get It on Credit.^[1]

The song was written by Geoffrey Iwamoto and Michael Roth, and was the only song on the album not written or cowritten by any member of the band.^[2] Iwamoto and Roth were a songwriting duo whose other noteworthy song, "My Heart Is Still Young", was recorded by Jennifer Rush and Paris Black. The song has been interpreted as being about a stripper, or about a woman planning to cheat on her husband; the band's keyboardist Scott Kreyer claimed in interviews to not know what the song was actually about.^[3]

Impact

The band's biggest chart hit, it peaked at #5 in the RPM charts in Canada,^[4] and at #77 on the Billboard charts in the United States.^[5] In 1983, it was used as the soundtrack to a Labatt Blue beer commercial.^[6]

Despite its popular success, the song has received mixed reception from critics; Evan Cater of AllMusic refers to the album as a "debacle" and does not single out "Your Daddy Don't Know" as an exception to his negative assessment of the album's quality,^[7] while Greg Burliuk of the Kingston Whig-Standard named it as a highlight of the album^[8] and later wrote that the lack of a single of equivalent strength was one of the biggest problems with the band's followup album Girls' Night Out.^[9] When the song began receiving radio airplay in the United States, Scott Benarde of the South Florida Sun Sentinel called it "far from the best the album offers", and opined that it "really sounds like a rip-off of a couple of Rick Springfield tunes".^[2]

The song was nominated for two Juno Awards at the Juno Awards of 1983, for Bestselling Single of the Year and Songwriter of the Year.^[10]

Legacy

In 1984, it was included in the band's Greatest Hits compilation.

The song was included in the 2001 edition of Oh What a Feeling: A Vital Collection of Canadian Music, a multi-disc compilation of Canadian pop and rock hits released to mark the 30th anniversary of the Juno Awards.

In 2002, the song was recorded by the New Pornographers, with Neko Case on lead vocals, for the film soundtrack Fubar: The Album, which featured contemporary Canadian bands recording covers of 1980s Canadian rock hits.^[11]

In 2022, the song was used as a lip sync number in an episode of Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. the World.^[12]

References

1. Mike Weaver, "Toronto album a winner". North Bay Nugget, June 12, 1982.
2. Scott Benarde, "Women rock steady and win recognition". South Florida Sun Sentinel, August 20, 1982.
3. Greg Burliuk, "Time is ripe for Toronto to spread into the United States". Kingston Whig-Standard, September 20, 1983.
4. The chart for the week of September 4, 1982 is currently missing from the RPM archives; however, the song is at #6 in the week of August 28 and #9 down from #5 in the week of September 11.
5. "Chartbeat". Billboard, January 29, 1983.
6. Greg Burliuk, "Kids' night out with Toronto a quiet celebration". Kingston Whig-Standard, September 23, 1983.
7. Evan Cater, "Get It on Credit: Toronto". AllMusic.
8. Greg Burliuk, "April Wine in August". Kingston Whig-Standard, July 4, 1982.
9. Greg Burliuk, "Modest sales a mystery". Kingston Whig-Standard, August 20, 1983.
10. Liam Lacey, "Big rock acts dominate Junos". The Globe and Mail, March 3, 1983.
11. Heath McCoy, "FUBAR soundtrack pure hoser charm". Calgary Herald, May 24, 2002.
12. Kevin O'Keeffe, "‘Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs The World’ Episode 4 recap: Stand-up gals". Xtra!, December 10, 2022.