The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun

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"The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun" is a 1984 song by Julie Brown recounting a high school shooting. A parody on 1950s "tragedy" songs, it revolves around a teenage homecoming queen named Debi who pulls out a gun after being crowned and shoots both teachers and fellow students. In the end she is shot by police, and confesses before she dies that she murdered for a mysterious person named "Johnny," who may or may not have been a nerdy classmate that always had food stuck in his braces (or a character from the book The Outsiders). The bouquet Debi holds in the music video has the words 'Debi, I love you, Johnny' written on a label. The narrator compares the unrevealed identity of "Johnny" to "Rosebud" in Citizen Kane.

The song appeared as a b-side to Brown's single I Like 'em Big and Stupid, and took off after being played frequently by Dr. Demento. As a result "The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun" is remembered better than the A-side of that single. A re-recorded dance version appeared as a b-side to Brown's 2005 single I Want to be Gay, 21 years after the original was released.

The song was ranked No. 324 in the KROQ Flashback 500 of 1996,^[1] and No. 488 in the KROQ Flashback 500 of 1988.^[2] It has was part of a special by the Australian national radio station Triple J on school songs in 2001.^[3]