At the time of its release, it was one of the most sexually explicit songs ever to reach the Canadian pop charts, and despite the sexual ambiguity, the first with such strong lesbian overtones. Although controversial, the song was a Top 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==