Teen Shares His Dad's Unreleased Song From The '70s And It Goes Viral
We love how proud Zack Montana is of his dad and his music — and you have to admit the song totally rocks
If only we could all have our kids recognize our past greatness with such joy and enthusiasm — a dad’s teenage son found some of his old music in the car and shared with the world. And now both father and son are in the spotlight for their music.
When 19-year-old Zach Montana hopped into his dad’s car to go for a drive, he made a startling — and funky — discovery.
“I was going to plug in my phone to play music,” Montana told Jimmy Kimmel in a recent appearance on his show. “Before I could even plug it in it started playing, it just came on with the bass line and I was like, this is great!”
As he told the story, he exuded the same genuine, bright enthusiasm that has helped make his TikTok video a sensation, with over 3 million views.
“Then the vocals come in, and I was like, wait a minute, that voice is really familiar,” Montana remembered.
The voice belongs to Montana’ s father, William “Curly” Smith, who served as drummer for the band Boston from 1994-2001. The song, “Surrender To Me,” was recorded 43 years ago and never released.
Delighted by his find, Montana, an aspiring musician himself, posted a video to TikTok.
“Guys PLEASE blow this up to convince my dad to release this song,” Montana wrote. The video shows Montana sitting in the car, listening to the song and bringing his hands to his hair in disbelief, exclaiming, things like “It’s disco but it’s so good,” “Just wait, it gets better,” and “he never released it! I’m so mad at him!”
In the interview with Kimmel, Smith explained, “It was very tough in those days to get a record deal.”
“I couldn’t get it signed, so I just put it on the shelf for 43 years and every now and then I would listen to it and go, ‘Hey, that’s pretty good,’” Smith continued, his eyes hidden behind a pair of rock star sunglasses.
After teasing him for still having a CD player in his car, Kimmel asked Smith if he left the CD in the car so that Zach would hear it.
Smith said no. “I was just listening to it myself.”
Kimmel also asked Montana if he got his dad’s permission before posting the video on TikTok.
“Nope!” Montana replied, grinning. “The world needed to hear it.”
While the whole word may not have heard the track just yet, in addition to a live father and son performance of “Surrender to Me” on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the song has gotten over 400,000 listens on Spotify.
In an update posted to TikTok, Montana thanks his followers for “blowing up that last video.”
“It really means the world to me and my dad,” he says. Waving a jewel case with a CD inside, he continues, “We got the files. This CD has more songs on it.”
Montana concludes the video update, saying, “The song is gonna be released! We did it!” his face still shining with disbelief.
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