Be True to Your School

"Be True to Your School"
Single by the Beach Boys
from the album Little Deuce Coupe
B-side"In My Room"
ReleasedOctober 28, 1963
RecordedSeptember 1963
GenrePop rock
Length2:10
LabelCapitol
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Brian Wilson
The Beach Boys singles chronology
"Surfer Girl"
(1963) 		"Be True to Your School"
(1963) 		"Little Saint Nick"
(1963)

"Be True to Your School" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1963 album Little Deuce Coupe. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, it was issued as a single on October 28, 1963. There are two versions of this song: the album version, and the single version, which added cheerleader yells by the girl group The Honeys in between verses.[1] The song features the melody of the University of Wisconsin's fight song, "On, Wisconsin!", although it is a tribute to Hawthorne High School, which the Wilson brothers attended. Hawthorne High School's fight song uses the same melody as "On, Wisconsin!".[2]

The cover photo for this single (and for the associated album Little Deuce Coupe) included member David Marks but not Al Jardine, though Jardine had returned to create a six-member band for the recording sessions for this single and album. This single, with its B-side "In My Room", were the last two of eight charting Beach Boys songs to include Marks in the 1960s.[3]

Chart history

Weekly charts

Chart (1963–1964) Peak
position
Australia[citation needed] 10
Canada (CHUM Chart)[4] 4
New Zealand (Lever Hit Parade)[5] 3
Sweden[citation needed] 6
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[6] 6
U.S. Cash Box Top 100[7] 8

Year-end charts

Chart (1964) Rank
U.S. Cash Box [8] 69

Covers and later versions

See also: List of cover versions of Beach Boys songs
  • 1964 – The Knights, Hot Rod High
  • 1985 – Jan & Dean, Silver Summer.
  • The song is featured in an episode of Gilmore Girls, where the town troubadour (portrayed by Grant-Lee Phillips) is playing it during a pep rally.
  • DTV, in 1984, set the original Beach Boys version of the song to a collection of Disney shorts including some featuring schools like Teachers Are People, Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
  • The song is played during the title sequence of the 1988 dark comedy Mortuary Academy.
  • The song's title is parodied by heavy metal band Twisted Sister in the song "Be Crool to Your Scuel".
  • Mike Love performed the song on a telethon on the Full House episode "Our Very First Telethon"; while the title of a later episode, "Be True to Your Preschool", is a reference to the song.
  • The song is featured in the 1980s TV series Riptide. The song is also the title of the episode (season 2, episode 7).
  • The song inspired the Ripped Pants song from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Ripped Pants”.
  • The song was part of an oldies melody in the 2005 Tokyo Disneyland parade/show "Disney's Rock Around the Mouse".
  • The song is featured in the end credits of the HBO series Vice Principals, season 1, episode 1.
  • Grace Vanderwaal sings the song in the 2020 Disney+ movie Stargirl. It is also included on the soundtrack for the movie.
  • The song was featured on a 1993 Sony Kids' Music album called Camp California, Where the Music Never Ends.
  • The song was used in a Macy's contest and commercial in 2014.

References

  1. ^ Badman, Keith. The Beach Boys. The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band: On Stage and in the Studio Backbeat Books, San Francisco, California, 2004. p. 42
  2. ^ Jenny Price. "Fight on for Her Fame", On Wisconsin Magazine, Winter 2009.
  3. ^ Stebbins, Jon; David Marks (2007). The Lost Beach Boy. London: Virgin Books. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-85227-391-0.
  4. ^ "CHUM Tribute Charts, December 16, 1963". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 1963-12-16. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  5. ^ "flavour of new zealand - search lever". Flavourofnz.co.nz. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  6. ^ Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
  7. ^ Downey, Pat; Albert, George; Hoffman, Frank (1994). Cash box pop singles charts, 1950-1993. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited Inc. p. 19. ISBN 1563083167. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
  8. ^ "Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 26, 1964". Archived from the original on June 1, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2018.