“Holy Smoke” by Iron Maiden

"Holy Smoke" beat No Prayer for the Dying into the shops by a few weeks in 1990 and climbed to number three on the UK Singles Chart, and it was the first Iron Maiden single with Janick Gers on guitar, freshly arrived in the middle of that year. Bruce Dickinson and Steve Harris wrote it, Martin Birch produced, and it's a rare thing in the Maiden catalog: short, blunt and straight to the point.

The target is the run of American televangelist scandals from the late '80s, with Jimmy Swaggart mocked under a nickname, and it goes after the preachers who work the faith for their own gain rather than the faith itself. It also swears more than Maiden usually do, so censored versions paper over the cursing with gunshots.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.