Teachers are one of the most valued and important professions in the world, and musicians have made it a point to write songs specifically about them through the years. Whether it’s rock or pop, there are several tracks about them, and we’re going to tell you about the 31 best songs about teachers of all time below!
1. Another Brick In The Wall – Pink Floyd
First on our list is Another Brick In The Wall by Pink Floyd, which is a three-part song coming from their film Pink Floyd: The Wall, a rock opera. In the second part, there is talk about teachers, and the track is anti-corporal punishment. It’s all about being in school and being abused by the teachers in this rigid environment.
It was a massive hit and is their signature song with it landing at number one in multiple countries outside of America, including one on the UK Singles chart and in Switzerland. In America, the track made it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and is thought to be one of the best songs ever released.
2. Teacher I Need You – Elton John
In 1973, Elton John released the song Teacher I Need You, which comes from his album Don’t Shoot Me I’m The Only Piano Player. This track is all about how a little boy experiences a crush on his school teacher and has sexual feelings for her and desires. The vibe of the song makes it feel like it’s from the 50s, and it’s one of his popular tracks on rock radio stations and often included in his concerts.
3. The Teacher – Paul Simon
Paul Simon released the song The Teacher on his 2000 album You’re The One. This track is all about how a boy is lost, and he ends up meeting a teacher who is quick to try to get him away from all of the dangers going on around him. While on a journey, he learns a lot of different things from this teacher, and he begins to mature and grow up, and the journey is around a year long. As the song ends, he looks back on this journey and wishes that he was still young and living in those simple times.
4. Hot For Teacher – Van Halen
Hot For Teacher makes our list, which is thought to be one of the signature songs from Van Halen while David Lee Roth was fronting the band. The drum solo in the beginning is very recognizable, and the music video features the members as adults and as young boys, which is also an iconic part of it. The track talks about having it bad for your teacher with a hot teacher shown in the music video.
A mix of hard rock, glam metal, heavy metal, and even boogie rock, this song is one of their most beloved to this day. When it was released, it went to 56 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Recommended: Top Van Halen songs of all time
5. Teachers – Daft Punk
On Homework, the debut studio album from Daft Punk, we have the song Teachers, which is all about the many influences in their lives through the years. Some of the influences were actual teachers and some were just other people, although thought of as teachers since they taught them things in life. While it’s less than three minutes long, you get a feel for how influential and thankful they are for all of the teachers they had in life.
6. Thank You – Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin makes the list with Thank You from their 1969 album called Led Zeppelin II. This song is a rock track that is a tribute to teachers and all the things they’ve done for our children. Not only how they make a difference in the lives of our children but how the teachers made a difference in ours too when we were all in school. It’s a song all about gratitude and how much a teacher can mean to a student for guidance and support.
7. Teacher’s Pet – Frankie Avalon
When you listen to Teacher’s Pet by Frankie Avalon, you will see why this song is on this list because it’s such a powerful yet fun track. This song is from the movie Jamboree, and it’s a track that’ll make you chuckle because you realize he has a crush on the teacher and wants to get close to her.
8. Oh Teacher – Diana Ross
Diana Ross makes the list with Oh, Teacher, which was released on her 1985 album Eaten Alive. This song is all about how teachers can influence their students and how positive those experiences and influences can be on the children. Teachers give our children support, guidance, and more, and this can impact certain students more than others. She sings about how teachers can really be what helps guide children when they are facing challenging situations in life, and it’s a very happy and uplifting track.
9. Teacher, Teacher – 38 Special
Next is 38 Special with Teacher, Teacher, which hit number four on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks and 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This song is upbeat, and it’s all about how teachers can help make learning an enjoyable thing for students and how much we’re grateful for everything that they do for our children. The track can be found in the movie Teachers, and it’s one of the most recognizable songs on our list.
10. School Day – Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry makes our list with School Day, which was released in 1957, and this is one of his signature songs that’s thought of as one of the biggest anthems in rock and roll. This track is from the perspective of the student and how it’s hard to deal with the teachers and doing tests all of the time, and even other things like finding a good seat to eat lunch in the school cafeteria. Unlike most songs on our list, this track is geared toward the students instead of being an inspirational song about the teacher.
11. Just Sixteen – Velvet Revolver
Velvet Revolver released the song Just Sixteen, which talks about how a teacher and student fall in love and are sneaking around, but they aren’t the most careful when it comes to trying to not get caught. This is one of their best songs, and it is the teacher who is going after the student and lusting for them, which is the opposite of Van Halen’s song Hot For Teacher.
12. Teach Me Tonight – Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra makes the list with Teach Me Tonight, which is all about how excited a student is to learn, and it’s a jazz standard that talks about how wonderful teachers are and praises them significantly.
13. When I Kissed The Teacher – ABBA
ABBA makes our list with When I Kissed The Teacher, which is a song that talks about how supportive teachers are and how much we need their guidance in our lives. It’s all about how much a student appreciates their teacher and thanks them for everything they’ve done to help them learn and grow.
14. The Art Teacher – Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Wainwright makes the list with The Art Teacher, which is from the 2004 album Want Two. This song is about a male teacher bragging about how it seems all of the females really like him and all of the students are hot for him. The lyrics then get to a female student’s perspective, and she talks about how much she loved one of her male teachers.
15. The Mentor – Catman Cohen
Next is The Mentor by Catman Cohen, which is from 2005, and it goes into how the teacher and student are engaged in a situation where they are falling in love with one another. The teacher begins falling for the student, and it’s a song that is based on situations we see all of the time.
16. Hey Teacher – Louis XIV
Louis XIV makes the list with Hey Teacher, which is a song expressing gratitude and appreciation for teachers and everything they do for students. It goes into how teachers can influence us and teach us things, and it’s a very upbeat track that offers a lot of important reminders in the lyrics. In part of the song, a lighthouse is used as a metaphor for the teacher, and there is a lot of love and thoughtfulness in the track.
17. Don’t Stand So Close To Me – The Police
The Police are on our list with Don’t Stand So Close To Me, which is about falling in love but knowing you shouldn’t be involved with the person, so you want them to keep their distance. It could be a student falling for a teacher or the other way around, but either way, it’s better to not even get involved because it’ll just go sideways. This song gets into that topic, and it’s one of the most recognizable tracks and beloved songs by The Police.
18. Master Teacher – Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu is on the list with Master Teacher, which was released in 2008, and this was really the first song that used “woke” and kind of helped mainstream this term. In the track, the question is posed as to what our world would look like if we were all teachers. It asks how much better life would be, and it’s a question worth thinking about, which makes this song a good one to listen to.
19. We’re Going To Be Friends – The White Stripes
The White Stripes make the list with We’re Going To Be Friends, which is a song about school in general, so there’s talk about teachers and about relationships. The track delves into friendships and whether these are worth pursuing as adults or whether everyone will be the same and want to be together as they get older. It’s a song that’s both nostalgic and dives into the questions we all have when we’re nearing graduating high school.
20. To Sir With Love – Lulu
Lulu released the song To Sir With Love, which is a track from 1967 that talks about being grateful for the support, mentoring, and guidance that teachers provide every day to children. It’s an uplifting song, and it hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and UK Singles chart. This iconic track is one of the most memorable when it comes to thanking teachers for everything they do and the impact that they have.
21. School’s Out – Alice Cooper
The next song is one we all know, which is School’s Out by Alice Cooper, which has been in movies including Dazed And Confused, I Love You, Beth Cooper, and If I Stay. Reaching number seven on the Billboard Hot 100, this track is a celebration of the school year being over and it being summer break. This song is a classic and anthem for students everywhere and mentions how the kids don’t have to deal with the dirty looks from the teachers anymore.
22. Teacher – Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull makes the list with Teacher, which is all about the bond between a student and a teacher and how that should be celebrated. It talks about how influential teachers are and how they can be mentors and help students. Teachers can change the lives of those they teach, and Tull gets into the details of it in this uplifting and inspiring song.
23. Teachers – Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen makes our list with the song Teachers, which is about how we can teach one another things that teachers in school couldn’t teach us about. It goes into how we can be taught about loss and about love, and these lessons are not taught in the classroom but through real-life experiences and how we can be compassionate to one another and teach each other these more important aspects of life.
24. The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils – Morrissey
Morrissey released The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils in 1995, which is all about how the teachers are now afraid of those that they teach instead of the other way around, unlike how it used to be. The change in dynamics between teacher and student has changed a lot in the last several decades, and this song goes into that and he even talks about a teacher being relieved when they kill themselves because of how bad the students are now.
25. School Teacher – Bob Seger
On his album Seven, Bob Seger released the song School Teacher, which is about a guy who sees the school teacher and would like to get to know her better and maybe even date her. The lyrics mention seeing her going to the school and about how he’d like to know more about her, so you can see that he is lusting for or at least desiring the teacher in some way, such as dating her or taking her out.
26. Teacher – Nick Jonas
In 2014, Nick Jonas released Teacher, which is a song about not being a school teacher, but instead, how he’d like to be the teacher and teach a woman he’s into some things about sex. It’s a track that is easy to figure out, and you quickly will realize what it is he’s talking about. He thinks he knows enough about sexual topics to teach them to chicks he’s into, which is far different from his boy band days.
27. Teach Your Children Well – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young released Teach Your Children Well, which is basically about how we all need to do better when it comes to teaching our children. This goes for teachers, parents, siblings, and pretty much society as a whole, and it’s a song that is a warning about how important it is to teach children right, or our civilization may not make it.
28. Penelope Halfpenny – Elvis Costello & The Imposters
Next on the list is Penelope Halfpenny by Elvis Costello & The Imposters. This song was a pretty big hit when it was released, and it’s very nostalgic. He talks about how he would be in class and just start goofing off and dreaming. Penelope is based a little bit on one of his teachers and how she’d have a short skirt on and sit on her desk, and he had thought she was the example of the freedom they hadn’t experienced yet since they were still in school.
29. The Reason I Teach – Jack Hartmann
In 2004, Jack Hartmann released the song The Reason I Teach, which is a track that is a tribute to the teachers and all of the work that they did with our children. This inspirational song is all about how important they are in the lives of children, how much they help them grow and learn, and how dedicated they are to their jobs.
30. Teacher’s Blues – Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger makes the list with Teacher’s Blues, which is a song about how teachers are underpaid and have to work long hours with little thanks. It’s going to go into the details surrounding the plight of a normal teacher, and it might make you think twice about just how much your teacher did for you growing up.
31. Children Will Listen – Bernadette Peters
Last on our list is the 1988 song Children Will Listen by Bernadette Peters. This track comes from the musical from Broadway called Into The Woods, and it’s a song that’s a warning about how impressionable children are and how they will watch us and learn from us, and then repeat what we do, so be careful about what you say and do around them.
Recommended Next:
From the time she was little, Florence loved listening to music and quickly learned how music can make you happy and feel fulfilled. One of her favorite memories is being in the garage with her dad working on classic cars with the local rock station blaring in the background. Ever since Florence was 3, she loved grunge music and spent hours listening to bands such as Alice in Chains, Mad Season, Soul Asylum, and Soundgarden.
She also enjoys classic rock, modern rock, nu metal, alternative rock, and old 90’s R&B. Her love of music grew as she got older, and used music to help her get through tough times in her life. More often than not, you’ll see Florence with earbuds in while she’s writing, cooking, cleaning, and doing other tasks. She also loves to debate music with her friends such as which lead singer is the best vocalist, the most iconic guitar solos in music, and what songs are really the best of the decade.
