20 hit, peaking at No. 12 nationwide on the RPM singles chart (#1 on their CANCON Chart) on June 20, 1981 and at No. 8 on the CHUM Chart in Toronto on May 30 of the same year. However, some radio stations refused to play the song, and others played a censored version with some of the most controversial lyrics removed; CHUM-FM paid for the band to record a cleaned-up version that avoided the line, "She makes me cream my jeans when she comes my way." (The band's subsequent hit "Crimes of Passion", which included an explicit verse about a gay male couple, also faced similar controversy.) k.d. lang was apparently inspired by seeing the band perform the number on the televised Juno Awards presentation that year, "seeing [Carole] set a tone for me that I could be out, no question". Merrill Nisker (now known by her stage name "Peaches") covered the song on her 1995 album Fancypants Hoodlum. The song appeared in the 1991 Canadian film The Adjuster, directed by Atom Egoyan. In 1999, the German band Alphaville covered "High School Confidential" on their album Dreamscapes. In 2004, the band Lesbians on Ecstasy released "The Pleasure Principal", a response song in which the high school's principal calls Pope to the office to discuss Pope's obsession with her classmate. In 2005, "High School Confidential" was named the 38th greatest Canadian song of all time on the CBC Radio One series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version. The 2020 film Jump, Darling features lead character Russell, an aspiring drag queen, performing a lip synch to "High School Confidential" in his local gay bar. In 2022, the song was used as a Lip Sync for Your Life number in the third season of Canada's Drag Race, in an episode in which Pope appeared as a guest judge. Queer as Folk In 2000, Pope recorded a new version of "High School Confidential" for the television series Queer as Folk, with the lyrics altered to reflect a gay male perspective: "He's a cool blond scheming trick...He's a combination Tom Cruise-Zack O'Toole". (Zack O'Toole was a fictional porn star in QAF, played by Matthew G. Taylor.) This version appears on the show's first season soundtrack album. References 1980 singles 1980 songs Rough Trade (band) songs LGBT-related music in Canada Lesbian-related songs True North Records singles Songs about school