What was the number one song in the UK on 12th August 1972?

“School’s Out” by Alice Cooper was #1 on the 12th August 1972 and it remained at the top for a total of 3 weeks.

Schoooooool’s Out, for summer! That is what was #1 back in the Summer of 1972, and I imagine at the time it was the anthem of every school boy and girl throughout the country.

The song is an anti-school anthem and celebrates the fact that every year in the summer, here in the UK at least, we have an extended summer break for all school students to enjoy the sunshine. I remember this always being the highlight of my year when I was at school, and used to wish away the days until it was time for those early morning lie-ins.

This song says it all really, in a nutshell. Many people in the UK obviously agreed and bought enough copies of this single to make it go straight to the top. This song is a fierce rock song which is probably one of the first punk songs ever released. This video will show you exactly what I mean:

Here is what wikipedia had to say on the song

Wikipedia

“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.

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.”

Lyrics

Well we got no choice
All the girls and boys
Makin all that noise
‘Cause they found new toys
Well we can’t salute ya
Can’t find a flag
If that don’t suit ya
That’s a drag

School’s out for summer
School’s out forever
School’s been blown to pieces

No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher’s dirty looks

Well we got no class
And we got no principles
And we got no innocence
We can’t even think of a word that rhymes

School’s out for summer
School’s out forever
School’s been blown to pieces

No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher’s dirty looks

Out for summer
Out till fall
We might not go back at all

School’s out forever
School’s out for summer
School’s out with fever
School’s out completely

Spotify

The Talk About Pop Music Every UK Number One is now on Spotify. Relive, enjoy and share every song featured up until the latest post!

Cover Version

So who remembers this cover version by the girl duo Daphne & Celeste? It’s just as fierce as the original.

Acoustic Cover

Here at Talk About Pop Music we love an acoustic cover and Danny McEvoy does them the best!