| "Hot for Teacher" | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Van Halen | ||||||||
| from the album 1984 | ||||||||
| A-side | "Hot For Teacher" | |||||||
| B-side | "Little Dreamer" | |||||||
| Released | 1984 | |||||||
| Format | 7" Vinyl record | |||||||
| Recorded | 1983, at 5150 Studios, Hollywood, California | |||||||
| Genre | Heavy metal, hard rock | |||||||
| Length | 4:44 | |||||||
| Label | Warner Music Group | |||||||
| Writer(s) | Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Michael Anthony, Alex Van Halen | |||||||
| Producer | Ted Templeman | |||||||
| Van Halen singles chronology | ||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
"Hot for Teacher" is a song on Van Halen's album 1984.
The sexually suggestive song was best known for its long opening drum solo, near motorcycle-like drum fills and its music video featuring the band as both adults and young students in a high school. The Parents Music Resource Center protested it, calling for it to be pulled from both the radio and television, due to the song's sexually suggestive lyrics referring to sex with a teacher, and a beautiful female teacher stripping in the video, among other issues. In 2009 it was named the 36th best hard rock song of all time by VH1.[1] Digital Dream Door ranked the drumming performance by Alex Van Halen on the song "Hot for Teacher" number 12 on their list of 100 Greatest Rock Drum Performances.[2]
The ending of this song comes from a studio outtake from the band's club days, entitled "Voodoo Queen".
Contents |
The music video (directed by Pete Angelus and David Lee Roth)[3] (produced by Jerry Kramer and Glenn Goodwin), and (concept/treatment by Anthony Nasch) was filmed at John Marshall High School[4], with Phil Hartman performing the voice of Waldo, the video's hero. Along with Waldo, the "kid versions" of Van Halen face the trials and tribulations of (shown in black-and-white) grade school. Once the schoolteacher arrives, she steps onto the desks, arrayed like a runway. She then tears off her dress, revealing a bikini bottom, cropped top and a sash that reads "Phys Ed", all to the cheers of the students, male and female. In the end, the kids grow up to become, variously, a gynecologist (Alex), sumo wrestler (Mike), psychiatric hospital patient (Eddie), pimp (Waldo) and game show host (Dave). Urban myth is alive and well in regards to the multitude of music insiders who claim creative credit for HFT. The original director, Rick Friedberg was hired for his knack to to tell funny stories ("Pray TV"). Unfortunately, Friedberg's old-school film making approach did not mesh with the free wheeling high-wire ways of VH. At the end of the day Angelus and Roth made the final editing decisions. On the set Angelus contributed to a few shot selections, combined with 'directing by committee', incredibly in spite of the footloose production history will bestow "Hot For Teacher" as one of the most influential MTV videos that helped catapult the network to legendary success.
The music video for 2006's "Situations" by Escape the Fate is based on the video for this song.
The song appears in Guitar Hero World Tour[5] and Guitar Hero Van Halen as one of the most difficult songs on the setlists. In a job advertisement for playtesters for future Guitar Hero games was released by Neversoft in 2008, Hot For Teacher was one of four songs applicants had to be capable of playing to receive a job.[5]
The song was covered by mandolinist David Grisman on the tribute album "Strummin' With The Devil: Bluegrass Tribute to Van Halen."
The song was referred to in the Family Guy episode "Untitled Griffin Family History" when Nate Griffin tells Quagdingo that he is going to hollow out a log to play the opening to "Hot For Teacher".
The song was mentioned by Frank Zappa when he appeared on CNN's Crossfire TV series and debated issues with Washington Times commentator John Lofton in 1986.[6]
The song was referenced to in the Psych episode, "Yin 3 in 2D" as a clue when Shawn (James Roday) discovers two of his record albums (rated and catalogued by "sweetness") missing: The Smiths' "Meat Is Murder" and Van Halen's "1984" and remembers the first track off of "Meat Is Murder" ("The Headmaster Ritual") and the second track off of "1984" ("Hot For Teacher"), leading them to the next clue.
The song appears in the third season episode of Glee called "Mash Off".
| Chart (1984) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 56 |