10 Best Classic Rock Songs About Teachers

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Our “10 Best Classic Rock Songs About Teachers” article presents a showcase of songs that focus on the interaction between teachers and their students. We were very careful to ensure all the songs on this list specifically concern teachers, rather than school in general. While there are many songs written about school, like Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” and The Beach Boys’ “Be True to Your School,” those songs tend to generalize broadly about education. For this list, we wanted to hone in more on teachers, selecting songs where if it was about education, it focused particularly on teaching—as you’ll see in our first song.

There are many songs to choose from, but we limit these lists to only 10 because that’s the style of the site. We hope you enjoy this one, and if you know of any others that you think are more deserving or need a shout-out, just let us know.

# 10 – Education – The Kinks

“We open our ’10 Best Classic Rock Songs About Teachers’ list with the wonderful Kinks song ‘Education.’ The song was released on the Kinks’ album Schoolboys in Disgrace. The album was released in 1975. Ray Davies makes many pertinent points in the song about teachers and education when he sings lyrics such as, ‘Teacher, teach me how to read and write, You can teach me about biology, But you can’t tell me what I am living for, ‘Cause that’s still a mystery.’ The song featured Ray Davies on vocals and guitar, Dave Davies on guitar and vocals, John Dalton on bass, Mick Avory on drums, and John Gosling on keyboards.”

Read More: 10 Most Underrated Kinks Songs

# 9 – The Dean And I – 10cc

Continuing with our “10 Best Classic Rock Songs About Teachers” list, we present a song from one of our favorite bands. 10cc’s very realistic song, “The Dean and I,” tells the tale of falling in love with the dean’s daughter at the high school prom, then getting married, and, as often happens, everything eventually falls apart. The song was released on the band’s debut album, 10cc. It was written by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley. The original lineup featured on this great tune included Lol Creme, Kevin Godley, Eric Stewart, and Graham Gouldman.

# 8 – Substitute – The Who

Well, you couldn’t have a rock song list about teachers without including at least one song about a substitute teacher. We all remember our substitute teachers and how much fun it was to walk into a classroom and see one of them. It meant “game on” for most of us. While The Who’s song “Substitute” is really more about being a substitute for love, we just can’t ignore the term “substitute,” can we? Although I’m sure we will get all those people who look at just the titles and dont bother to read one world complaining that “Substitute” is not about a teacher. Let’s see who we get.

“Substitute” was originally released by the band as a single in 1966. It would eventually find its way onto the album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy a few years later, in 1971.

# 7 – Professor Nutbutter’s House Of Treats – Primus

This one is completely insane, and that’s probably why we love it. Yes, it’s a song about teachers—specifically about a professor. However, it’s not about what the professor does in school; it’s about all the wonderful candies he makes in his “House of Treats.” Are they really talking about candy? Probably not, but there’s nothing in the lyrics that explicitly says it’s not about candy. And who doesn’t love the name “Professor Nutbutter”? Are we missing something here? Most definitely. If you can figure it out, let us know. In the end, though, it’s just an awesome song—this band is crazy good.

Read More: Top 10 Primus Songs

# 6 – Teacher, Teacher – 38 Special

Well, if there is one song that is definitely about teachers and can be easily proven, it would be 38 Special’s “Teacher, Teacher.” This was the theme song to the 1984 film Teachers, which starred Nick Nolte, along with JoBeth Williams, Ralph Macchio, and Judd Hirsch. It was actually a pretty good movie that has kind of disappeared. Nonetheless, this is a great rock and roll tune from a great rock band that enjoyed its biggest success in the early to mid-80s with a whole string of top 10 hits.

Read More: 10 Essential 38 Special Songs

# 5 – Don’t Stand So Close to Me – The Police

At the halfway point on our “10 Best Classic Rock Songs About Teachers” list, we turn to this memorable Police song entitled “Don’t Stand So Close to Me.” We’ve all probably seen the video hundreds of times on MTV, so we know what this one’s all about. The lyrics also spell it out quite clearly. The song was originally released on the band’s third album, Zenyatta Mondatta. It was issued as the lead single from the album and went straight to number one in the United Kingdom. This is a big one—it also won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance.

Read More: 10 Most Underrated Police Songs

# 4 – Teacher – Jethro Tull

It would be fair to say that Jethro Tull’s “Teacher” is one of the most loved songs in the band’s catalog. That opening bassline is just so smoking. The way it dances with the guitar riff by Martin Barre is incredibly captivating. The song “Teacher” was released on Jethro Tull’s Benefit album, which was the band’s third album. At the time, the band consisted of Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, Glenn Cornick, and Clive Bunker. The song was actually released as a B-side first to “The Witch’s Promise.” Although, like many of those classic B-sides, it got a lot more play and became a pretty big hit. Nowadays, it seems that more people should pay attention to Anderson’s lyrics when he sang, “Jump up, look around, find yourself some fun. No sense in sitting there hating everyone.”

# 3 – Teacher Teacher – Rockpile

Now, everyone needs a little Rockpile in their life. It’s sad that they released only one album, but what a great one it was. Of course, we have all the music that Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe gave us during their solo careers, so there’s a lot of good stuff out there by these two brilliant musicians. The song “Teacher Teacher” was released on the album Seconds of Pleasure. The album was released in 1980. Rockpile consisted of Billy Bremner, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, and Terry Williams. “Teacher Teacher” was the lead single from the album. It was also featured in the movie Bad Teacher, starring the beautiful Cameron Diaz.

Read More: Top 10 Dave Edmunds Songs

# 2 – Hot for Teacher – Van Halen

It was a real heavyweight fight between Van Halen and Elton John for the number one spot on our list about songs related to teachers. Both of these songs are incredible. In the end, we gave the top spot to Elton John simply because he’s been around a lot longer. Hey, we had to have some sort of criteria. If you’ve read many of our Van Halen articles, you’ve seen that we always place “Hot for Teacher” pretty high up on all our Van Halen lists. It’s pretty much our favorite Van Halen song of all time. That video is just spectacular.

For those of you who may not be up on your Van Halen history, “Hot for Teacher” was released on their album 1984, which, appropriately, came out in 1984. It would be the final Van Halen album that David Lee Roth would appear on before he left for his solo career. However, it would not be the last Van Halen album featuring him, as Diamond Dave returned many years later for A Different Kind of Truth.

Read More: Top 10 Van Halen Songs

# 1 – Teacher I Need You – Elton John

We close out our list of 10 classic rock songs about teachers with Elton John’s superb track “Teacher I Need You.” With magnificent lyrics written by Bernie Taupin and wonderfully composed by Elton John, “Teacher I Need You” stands out as one of the best tracks on the marvelous album Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player. It’s amazing that a song this good was never released as a single. But that’s the story with Elton John—there are so many great songs buried on his 1970s albums that never saw the light of day as singles because he just kept putting music out at a break neck pace. Ask any Elton John fan to name their favorite song on Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player, and “Teacher I Need You” will be right up there along with “Blues for Baby and Me.”