School's Out (song)

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This article is about the Alice Cooper song. For the Gary U.S. Bonds song, see School Is Out.

"School's Out"
Cover of the 1972 US single
Single by Alice Cooper
from the album School's Out
B-side"Gutter Cat"
ReleasedApril 26, 1972 (1972-04-26)
Recorded1972
Genre
Length3:29
LabelWarner Bros.
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Bob Ezrin
Alice Cooper singles chronology
"Be My Lover"
(1972) 		"School's Out"
(1972) 		"Elected"
(1972)
Alternative cover
Cover of the 1972 German single

"School's Out" is a song first recorded as the title track of Alice Cooper's fifth album. It was released as the album's only single on April 26, 1972. "School's Out" was Alice Cooper's biggest international hit and it has been regarded as their signature song[1] and reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100, number three in the Canadian RPM 100 Singles chart, number two on the Irish Singles Chart and number one on the UK Singles Chart.

In 2015, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[2]

Inspiration and writing[edit]

Cooper has said he was inspired to write the song when answering the question, "What's the greatest three minutes of your life?". Cooper said: "There's two times during the year. One is Christmas morning, when you're just getting ready to open the presents. The greed factor is right there. The next one is the last three minutes of the last day of school when you're sitting there and it's like a slow fuse burning. I said, 'If we can catch that three minutes in a song, it's going to be so big."[3]

Cooper has also said it was inspired by a line from a Bowery Boys movie. On his radio show, Nights with Alice Cooper, he joked that the main riff of the song was inspired by a song by Miles Davis.[4] Cooper said that guitarist Glen Buxton created the song's opening riff.

The lyrics of "School's Out" indicate that not only is the school year ended for summer vacation, but ended forever, and that the school itself has been literally blown up. It incorporates the childhood rhyme, "No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks" into its lyrics. It also featured children contributing some of the vocals. "Innocence" in the lyric " ... and we got no innocence" is frequently changed in concert to "intelligence" and sometimes replaced with "etiquette." The song appropriately ends with a school bell sound that fades out.

Later performances saw Alice Cooper incorporate parts of the first verse of "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2", a song by Pink Floyd (also about school, and produced by Bob Ezrin) into "School's Out".

Release and reception[edit]

"School's Out" became Alice Cooper's first major hit single, reaching number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart and propelling the album to number two on the Billboard 200 pop albums chart. It was the highest-charting single for the Alice Cooper band, and its number-seven peak position was matched only by "Poison" among Cooper's solo efforts. Billboard ranked it as the number-75 song for 1972.[5] In Canada, the single went to number three on the RPM 100 Singles Chart[6] following the album reaching number one.[7] In Britain, the song went to number one on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in August 1972. It also marked the first time that Alice Cooper became regarded as more than just a theatrical novelty act.

The single version of the song is a slightly sped-up narrow stereo remix of the album version with one major difference—the "turn-off" effect used upon the school bell and sound effects at the end of the album version is not used on the single version, allowing the school bell and effects to simply fade out.

Some radio stations banned the song from their airwaves, stating that the song gave the students an impression of rebelliousness against childhood education. Teachers, parents, principals, counselors, and psychologists also shunned the song and demanded several radio stations ban the song from ever being played on the air.

Upon the release of the single, Record World said: "Heavy seasonal rocker will have Alice's hordes of fans swinging all summer. Their best since 'Eighteen,' and a super hit."[8]

"School's Out" was ranked number 326 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[9] In 2009 it was named the 35th best hard rock song of all time by VH1[10] and the song appeared on the TV show American Idol in 2010. The Guardian placed it as number 3 on its list of "The 20 best glam-rock songs of all time."[11] In 2018, Ian Chapman and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have called it a "glam rock anthem."[12][13] Nick Talevski has called it a "hard rock anthem" on his book Rock Obituaries: Knocking On Heaven's Door.[14] The Independent named the song at tenth in the list "Gold Dust: Glam rock's top 10 singles."[15]

Use in popular media[edit]

The song has been used in various movies including Scream, Dazed and Confused, Rock 'n' Roll High School, and I Love You, Beth Cooper.

The Season 4 premiere episode of The Simpsons, "Kamp Krusty", features the song in which Bart Simpson dreams that it is the last day of school and the students destroy the place.

In 2004, the song was also used in a Staples television commercial for the back to school retail period in which Cooper appeared as himself.[16]

Personnel[edit]

Notable cover versions[edit]

Charts[edit]

Certifications[edit]

Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[32] Silver 200,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References[edit]

  1. ^ ""School's Out" Forever: The Secret History Of Alice Cooper's Classic". Deadspin. May 21, 2015. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
  2. ^ "Grammy Hall of Fame Letter S". Grammy. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  3. ^ The Mojo Collection: 4th Edition. Canongate Books. November 1, 2007. p. 284. ISBN 978-1-84767-643-6. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
  4. ^ Originally stated May 4, 2008; clarified as just a joke on June 3, 2008.
  5. ^ Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1972
  6. ^ a b "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  7. ^ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  8. ^ "Hits of the Week" (PDF). Record World. May 27, 1972. p. 1. Retrieved April 1, 2023.
  9. ^ "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. April 7, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  10. ^ "spreadit.org music". Archived from the original on August 27, 2010. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
  11. ^ Savage, Jon (February 1, 2013). "The 20 best glam-rock songs of all time". The Guardian. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
  12. ^ Chapman, Ian (2018). Experiencing Alice Cooper: A Listener's Companion. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 26. ISBN 9781442257719.
  13. ^ Mervis, Scott (October 27, 2018). "Alice Cooper is the perfect master of ceremonies for WDVE Halloween party at Stage AE". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  14. ^ Talevski, Nick (2010). Rock Obituaries: Knocking On Heaven's Door. Omnibus Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-85712-117-2.
  15. ^ Pepinster, Catherine (August 16, 1998). "Gold Dust: Glam rock's top 10 singles". The Independent. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  16. ^ "Staples Unveils Back-to-School Commercial Starring Alice Cooper; 'School's Out' - Or Is It - For Veteran Rocker in New Ad Campaign". Business Wire. July 8, 2004. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012.
  17. ^ "Neal Smith Rocks". Rockhall.com. April 29, 2020. Archived from the original on May 30, 2020. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
  18. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2013). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles, 14th Edition: 1955-2012. Record Research. p. 476.
  19. ^ Masley, Ed (April 2, 2024). "How Alice Cooper reimagined 'I'm Eighteen' and 'School's Out' for a kids album". Arizona Republic. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  20. ^ ""Go-Set Singles Chart Page with "School's Out" Peak Position"" Archived June 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on November 5, 2009.
  21. ^ ""Austrian Singles Charts Search for Alice Cooper"" Austriancharts.at. Retrieved on August 10, 2009."
  22. ^ ""German Singles Charts Search for Alice Cooper"" Archived September 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine musicline.de. Retrieved on August 11, 2009."
  23. ^ ""Irish Singles Charts Search for Alice Cooper"" irishcharts.com. Retrieved on August 11, 2009."
  24. ^ ""Norwegian Singles Charts Search for Alice Cooper"" norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved on August 11, 2009."
  25. ^ ""Dutch Singles Charts Search for Alice Cooper"" dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved on August 11, 2009."
  26. ^ Flavour of New Zealand, 9 October 1972
  27. ^ Rice, Jo; Tim Rice; Paul Gambaccini; Mike Read (1979). The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles (2nd ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 56. ISBN 0-900424-99-0.
  28. ^ "Alice Cooper - Charts & Awards - Billboard Singles" Allmusic. Retrieved on August 10, 2009."
  29. ^ Cash Box Top 100 Singles, August 19, 1972_
  30. ^ "Top 100 Hits of 1972/Top 100 Songs of 1972". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved October 7, 2016.
  31. ^ "Cash Box YE Pop Singles - 1972". cashboxmagazine.com.
  32. ^ "British single certifications – Alice Cooper – School's Out". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved April 1, 2022.

External links[edit]

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