School Anthems: TNT, We're DynoMITE!

I am sitting in the basement of my in-law's house in Pacifica, CA---the town of my adolescence---where my first novel, STORY OF A GIRL, is set. In that book, I didn't bother fictionalizing the name of my high school, Terra Nova. My in-laws live less than two miles from said alma mater; I've been driving past it nearly every day for the last three weeks and haven't suffered any major trauma. Time heals everything.

They're doing some major construction at the school---Digging a new pool? Finally replacing those portables with permanent classrooms?---and the roof is now covered with solar panels, but when I go by I see it as it was: the annex where we had drama class, the wall at which I received my first real kiss, the rail where all the scary jocks hung out, the doors to the cafeteria through which I fled during an epic food fight. Most of all, I have had a certain two songs in my head NON-STOP...

Because we were the Terra Nova Tigers
Because our school was pretty white and into hard rock
And, because it was 1984 -

One song we heard a lot was AC/DC's TNT. What? You're not familiar? This is very sad! Let me do my good deed for the day and share:



The girls volleyball team had this whole drills/get fired up/intimidate the opponent thing to this song that I thought it was SO COOL. (Of course I would never admit that at the time, since I was a non-sports-playing drama geek. Now it can be told.) But, let's face it, the lyrics to TNT weren't exactly something the administration wanted the kids singing at the top of our lungs: "lock up your daughter / lock up your wife / lock up your back door / and run for your life!"

So our true school anthem, the one we heard at every pep rally, sporting event, and hot lunch jam (okay I made that last one up) was, of course, Eye of the Tiger, by Survivor. Sadly, though the marching band could play the heck out of it, we never thought to sing it as a Glee-like school group. But PS22 did!



How sweet is that?

So - what pop or popular songs were/are your school anthems?

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