This chart-topping smash finds the Jackson 5 schooling a young girl in the fundamentals they're convinced her education somehow failed to cover. With "Schoolboys in Disgrace," the Kinks' Ray Davies devoted an entire concept album to the education system, setting the scene with the wistful nostalgia of "Schooldays" before concluding, nine songs later, that "even aborigines need education." But "The Hard Way" advanced to the head of the class in part because it was blessed with the kind of guitar riff that defined their early hits, only faster, and in part because the lyrics, sung from the perspective of a disillusioned teacher, played so well to Davies' strengths ("I'm wasting my vocation teaching you to write neat / When you're only fit to sweep the streets"). "It's the morning of your very first day / You say 'Hi' to your friends you ain't seen in a while / Try and stay out of everybody's way / It's your freshman year and you're gonna be here for the next four years in this town / Hoping one of those senior boys will wink at you and say 'You know I haven't seen you around before.'" The Kinks, 'The Hard Way'
"You take a deep breath and you walk through the doors," she sings. But it starts with a richly detailed verse about that all-important first day of your freshman year at high school. This wistful ballad finds the singer looking back while still in her teens yet coming away with surprisingly grown-up reflections on the battle scars of young romance.
Alice Cooper, 'School's Out'Ĭooper's greatest hit sets the tone with a punkish guitar riff as memorable as anything the kids had heard since "I'm Eighteen," following "School's out for summer" with "School's out forever" because, as the singer reveals in a textbook example of knowing your audience, "School's been blown to pieces." Having school kids join the taunting bridge of "No more pencils / No more books" was a brilliant idea, if not as brilliant as "We got no class and we got no principles / And we got no innocence / We can't even think of a word that rhymes." Whatever your relationship with school is, chances are you'll hear some of your own experiences in at least a handful of these songs, from the Beach Boys' celebration of school spirit to Taylor Swift recalling how her first day as a high school freshman felt. You could say Berry's song was a "textbook example" of this type of song, in fact - if you're the type of person who would say that sort of thing. Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of - By U2 35.Now that the kids are eyeing the end of the school year, here's a playlist of 30 classics devoted to "school days," as Chuck Berry put it on a timeless 1957 single. Too Young To Fall In Love - By Motley Crue 29. The Other Side Of This Life - By Jefferson Airplane 27. The Man Who Sold The World - By Nirvana 25. Making Love Out Of Nothing At All - By Air Supply 24. Landing In London - By Three Doors Down 22. Cradled In Love - By Poets Of The Fall 18. Arriving Somewhere But Not Here - By Porcupine Tree 17. Every Rose Has It's Thorn - By Poison 10. Good Times, Bad Times - By Led Zeppelin 9. Here are some of the best lyrics from some of the best rock bands that we've had the pleasure of growing up to. You know the feeling when you think this song was written just for you. Every now and then, we all find a rock song we can relate to. The one genre that has given us the most beautiful lyrics is rock music.