Top 20 Songs About School and the Classroom

The best pop & rock songs about high school, class, and going back to school.

It's time for back to school, which means "back to school" supplies (and sales at every store from A to Zed). It also means you have to get back to the grind, the homework and sleeping through study hall. We need a good mix-CD to get our new school year rolling, so here are the top 20 songs for "Back to School."

20 - Back on the Chain Gang by the Pretenders

19 - My Old School by Steely Dan

18 - Hot for Teacher by Van Halen

17 - Teacher I Need You by Elton John, from the LP Don't Shoot Me, I'm
Only the Piano Player

16 - Playground by XTC

15 - ABC by the Jackson 5, from the early years when their talent trumped their madness.

14 - Schooldays by The Kinks

13 - Mark Me Absent by The Clash

12 - Right Back to Where We Started From … by Maxine Nightingale

11 - The Old Schoolyard by Cat Stevens

10 - To Sir with Love by Lulu

9 - Smokin in the Boys Room by Brownsville Station, later remade by Motley Crüe. (Don't do this in school.)

8 - Back in Black by AC/DC …. for those who have to wear uniforms to school.

7 - Homework by Fleetwood Mac from the Peter Green days.

6 - Teacher, Teacher by .38 Special, from the "Teachers" movie soundtrack.

5 - Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd from "The Wall".  We don't need no education … but maybe, we actually do.

4 - Teacher by Jethro Tull, from the Benefit LP. Our hardest rocking school song.

3 - The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun by July Brown . A classic comedy song from the 80s, where Buffy's pompoms got blown to bits.

2 - I Don't Like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats. Back to school means back to the Monday grind.

1 - School by Supertramp One the coolest tunes from the 70s. It still holds up today.
I can see you in the morning when you go to school
Don't forget your books, you know you've got to learn the golden rule,

Get those pencils, notebooks and binders in line. Your locker needs some glitter and a fuzzy troll. It's back to school, so if you get picked on at the schoolyard, remember: drop, tuck and roll.

See Also: The Top 10 Movies for Back to School

School songs have more class than they get credit for: none of these tunes made it to #1 on the radio charts. We like them anyway. Grad your book bag and hit the bricks, earphones intact.