School's Out (song)

"School's Out"

Cover of the 1972 US single
Single by Alice Cooper
from the album School's Out
B-side "Gutter Cat"
Released April 26, 1972 (1972-04-26)
Format 7-inch single
Recorded 1972
Genre
Length 3:29
Label Warner Bros.
Writer(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 1972 song first recorded as the title track single of Alice Cooper's fifth album and written by the Alice Cooper band: Cooper, Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith.

Inspiration and writing

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.'"

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.[1] 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 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 in "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

"School's Out" became Alice Cooper's first major hit single, reaching #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart and propelling the album to #2 on the Billboard 200 pop albums chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 75 song for 1972.[2] In Canada, the single went to #3 on the RPM Top Singles Chart[3] following the album reaching #1.[4] In Britain, the song went to #1 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 mono mix 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 a negative impression of rebelliousness against childhood education. Teachers, parents, principals, counselors, and psychologists also shunned that song and demanded several radio stations to ban the song from ever being played on the air.

In 2004, "School's Out" was ranked #319 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2009 it was named the 35th best hard rock song of all time by VH1[5] 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."[6]

Usage in popular media

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

In 2004, the song was also used in a Staples television commercial for the back to school retail period in which Alice appeared as himself.[7] A young girl with black hair, obviously disappointed that school is starting soon, says, "I thought you said 'School's out forever.'" Alice (who's pushing a shopping cart full of her school supplies) replies, "No, no, no ... the song goes, 'School's out for summer.' Nice try though." The song was also used in a 2009 Arby's commercial.

The title of the 1992 Degrassi movie, School's Out, comes from this song.

In 2012, the song was featured in musical TV series Glee, episode "Choke" (aired on May 1), in its third season. The song was performed by Mark Salling as his character Puck.[8]

The Simpsons episode "Kamp Krusty" had an excerpt of the song's refrain used during Bart's dream sequence with the destruction of Springfield Elementary on its last day of school before summer vacation, and in the episode I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can, Principal Skinner sings his own version - "School's back in session, let's begin our lesson!"

The fictional music group Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song at the beginning of their VHS Alvin and the Chipmunks - School's Out for Summer. The lyric "School's been blown to pieces" was changed to "School's ancient history".

Cooper performs the song as the closing act of his episode of The Muppet Show where he dances with various large Muppet monsters who gleefully act out his lyrics, including causing numerous explosions. The song was also performed in the finale of the ninth season of American Idol by Idol contestants and Cooper himself.

The live version from Classicks is featured as downloadable content in Rock Band 3

Cover versions

Daphne and Celeste version

"School's Out"
Single by Daphne and Celeste
from the album We Didn't Say That!
Released August 21, 2000 (US)
Format CD single
Recorded 1999
Genre Pop, pop rap
Length 3:23
Label Phantom Sound/Visi
Daphne and Celeste singles chronology
"U.G.L.Y."
(2000)		 "School's Out"
(2000)

Pop duo Daphne and Celeste released a cover of the song in 2000. The chorus is based on Alice Cooper's hit of the same name, and some other elements of that song have been retained, although much of the song is "original", in a pop rap style. The single is remixed from the version released on their album We Didn't Say That!, removing a prominent synthesizer line from the chorus, among other more minor changes. The B-side, "Camp Song", is the only non-album D&C track available.

Track listing
  1. "School's Out"
  2. "The Camp Song"
  3. "School's Out" (Gridlock Mix)
  4. "School's Out" (video)
"School's Out"
Single by Gwar
from the album Beyond Hell
Released 2006
Format Promo CD, digital single
Recorded 2006
Genre Crossover thrash
Length 3:23
Label DRT Entertainment
Producer(s) Devin Townsend & Cory Smoot
Gwar singles chronology
"A Soundtrack to Kill Yourself To"
(1997)		 "School's Out"
(2006)

Gwar version

"School's Out" was also covered by the band Gwar. It was the first release from their 2006 album Beyond Hell. It was released as a digital download through services such as iTunes and eMusic, and as a promotional CD sent to radio stations. The band has stated in several interviews that they had not intended on recording a cover song for Beyond Hell, but the record company insisted that they do a cover that might get some airplay, and would be accessible to a wider audience than their first choice for a single, "Eighth Lock".

Other covers

Chart performance

Weekly singles charts

Chart (1972) Peak
position
Canadian RPM [3] 3
UK[10] 1
US Billboard Hot 100[11] 7
US Cash Box Top 100 6
Germany [12] 5
Austria [13] 12
Norway [14] 6
Ireland [15] 2
The Netherlands [16] 9
Australia [17] 22

Year-end charts

Chart (1972) Position
Canada 7
UK [18] 12
US Billboard Hot 100 [19] 75
US Cash Box [20] 51

References

  1. ↑ Originally stated May 4, 2008; clarified as just a joke on June 3, 2008.
  2. ↑ Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1972
  3. 1 2 "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  5. ↑ "spreadit.org music". Retrieved February 7, 2009.
  6. ↑ Savage, Jon (February 1, 2013). "The 20 best glam-rock songs of all time". The Guardian. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
  7. ↑ "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.
  8. ↑ "Glee Songs Report Card - Season 3 Episode 18 - Choke". Top40.about.com. January 7, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Les Savy Fav covers "School's Out" by Alice Cooper on a yacht". Retrieved April 6, 2013.
  10. ↑ 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.
  11. ↑ "Alice Cooper - Charts & Awards - Billboard Singles" Allmusic. Retrieved on August 10, 2009."
  12. ↑ ""German Singles Charts Search for Alice Cooper"" musicline.de. Retrieved on August 11, 2009."
  13. ↑ ""Austrian Singles Charts Search for Alice Cooper"" Austriancharts.at. Retrieved on August 10, 2009."
  14. ↑ ""Norwegian Singles Charts Search for Alice Cooper"" norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved on August 11, 2009."
  15. ↑ ""Irish Singles Charts Search for Alice Cooper"" irishcharts.com. Retrieved on August 11, 2009."
  16. ↑ ""Dutch Singles Charts Search for Alice Cooper"" dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved on August 11, 2009."
  17. ↑ ""Go-Set Singles Chart Page with "School's Out" Peak Position"" Retrieved on November 5, 2009.
  18. ↑ "Top 100 1972 - UK Music Charts". Uk-charts.top-source.info. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
  19. ↑ "Top 100 Hits of 1972/Top 100 Songs of 1972". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
  20. ↑

External links

Preceded by
"Puppy Love" by Donny Osmond		 UK Singles Chart number one single
August 12, 1972 (3 weeks) 		Succeeded by
"You Wear It Well" by Rod Stewart
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