What can we say in praise about the film High School Confidential other than: in terms of camp value, it only improves with age.
Well, there’s the great title song by Jerry Lee Lewis, who lip-syncs to it over the opening credits of the film while playing piano on a moving flatbed truck cum mobile record store bearing his own name, surrounded by a flock of teenagers. Lewis disappears after the opening credits–that’s the kind of movie this is.
It’s a great song, even if its shared-with-the-film title doesn’t really fit.
Unfortunately, the song never became the hit it should have been, peaking only at #21 on the Billboard Hot 100. That’s because Lewis’ marriage to his thirteen-year-old wife became public just before the film and single debuted.
Ironically underscoring the theme of the film (the seamy and sordid corruption of American youth), Lewis become the subject of boycotts and blacklists, the target of parents across the country, and a radio pariah. “High School Confidential” quickly plateaued and plummeted off the charts as the news of Lewis’ personal drama spread.
Nevertheless, the record managed to find its way into the hands of over a million buyers and inspired some notable covers over the years.
Bruce Springsteen was one of those cover artists, first playing it with the E Street Band on the Darkness Tour in the summer of 1978.
“High School Confidential” made several appearances throughout the summer and fall of 1978, but only a few cameos since. One of those cameos anchored one of the stranger show openers in Bruce’s career.
On Halloween eve in 1984, Bruce opened the show in an open coffin, playing the role of Frankenstein’s monster. The band tries everything they can think of to bring him to life, but only a mystery man with a guitar and a movie western theme song does the trick.
Finally animated, Bruce opens the show with “High School Confidential.”
It was an inspired choice by a rock star who was also a huge film buff. Because the right way to follow a campy opening shtick like that has to be with the title song from one of the campiest films ever.
High School Confidential
First performed: August 14, 1978 (Hampton, VA)
Last performed: November 5, 2022 (Los Angeles, CA)
