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playlist

December 8, 2008

Inspired by a Chicago example, songs in the key of the DOE

by Philissa Cramer, at 12:10 pm

The Chicago Public Schools employee in charge of running a Web site for the district’s alumni recently created an iTunes mix featuring music by Bo Diddley, Kanye West, and other famous CPS grads.

And the person who started the playlist is issuing a “playful challenge” to New York and Los Angeles to come up with comparable mixes, the Chicago Tribune reports.

What would a New York City public schools iTunes mix sound like? I didn’t actually create one, but I did come up with some musicians who got their starts attending the city’s public schools:

Barbra Streisand, Erasmus Hall HS

Barbra Streisand, Erasmus Hall '59

  • Tony Bennett, Art and Design
  • Harry Chapin, Brooklyn Tech
  • The Cleftones, Jamaica HS
  • Bobby Darin, Hunter College High School
  • Al Kooper, Martin van Buren HS
  • Thelonious Monk, Stuyvesant
  • Barbra Streisand, Erasmus Hall HS
  • Suzanne Vega, LaGuardia

What big names am I missing? A Stuyvesant alum compiled a list of albums by Stuy grads on Amazon.com, but does some enterprising soul want to curate an actual playlist for download? You’ll have to do it on your own, because the closest thing the DOE has to an alumni office is the Fund for Public Schools, and all it appears to offer alums are links to a handful of individual high schools’ alumni groups.

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  • Ms. Miller

    Carole King and Neil Sedaka went to high school together in Brooklyn (James Madison, according to Wikipedia). Forest Hills High School alone produced Simon and Garfunkel, The Ramones, and Burt Bacharach.

  • Greg

    Jay-Z grew up in Bed-Stuy and attended George Westinghouse Information Technology High School (where, according to Wikipedia, his classmates included Busta Rhymes and The Notorious B.I.G., but that seems too good to be true).

    He’s also penned a charming ode to the neighborhoods of his youth, “Brooklyn We Go Hard:”

    “This 1′s For Brooklyn
    I’m In Ma Bed-Stuy Fly U Kno? Bushwick Sick I Walk Dat East New York Walk
    Brownsville Grill Got Ma Fort Greene Lean Ha Ha Clinton Hill Shill Red Hook Look
    Dat Flatbush Push Naw Mean? Cypress Hill Feel Crown Heights Tight Wit It
    Da Williamsburg swerve Coney Island Stylin’ On Em Canarsie Flawsy”

    And, for those who think Park Slope is entirely un-rappable, he closes with “Park Slope Dope U Kno? Ya Digg?”

    Having taught in Bed-Stuy and East New York, and having lived in Park Slope, I think I can safely say that yes, I digg.

  • fascinated

    Here’s a link to alums from the LaGuardia HS for Arts & Performing Arts website. It also includes grads of the former HS’s of Music & Art and the HS of Performing Arts which were merged in the 80′s to form LaGuardia. http://www.alumniandfriends.org/notablealumni

  • http://www.caenyc.org Richard Kessler

    Don’t forget both Simon and Garfunkel, who graduated Forest Hills High School.

    The great classical composer Steve Reich went to PS6.

  • Kelly Vaughan

    What about famous musicians for whom schools in the city are named, like Toscanini?

  • K. Washburn

    I wish we could claim Bobby Darin, but Hunter College High School was all girls at the time he would have been in high school!

  • http://missbrave.blogspot.com miss brave

    Yip Harburg (who wrote the lyrics for The Wizard of Oz) and Ira Gershwin both attended Townsend Harris High School.

  • http://missbrave.blogspot.com miss brave

    And LL Cool J attended (but dropped out of) Andrew Jackson High School in Queens. At least one member of the Beastie Boys went to Edward R. Murrow in Midwood.

  • http://missbrave.blogspot.com miss brave

    One more: 50 Cent also dropped out of Andrew Jackson High School; according to Wikipedia, he used to bring guns and drug money to school and got caught by the metal detectors! And Q-Tip (the Q stands for Queens!), of A Tribe Called Quest, attended Murry Bergtraum High School in Manhattan.

  • http://www.youtube.com/bobbyfan64 Laura

    You aren’t quite right on where Bobby Darin went to high school. It was a New York city public school – the elite Bronx High School of Science. Following high school, he briefly attended Hunter College.

  • Smith

    Markey Ramone went to Erasmus. He played with Richard Hell and the Voidoids before he joined the Ramones. Neil Diamond and Beverly Sills also went there, but I think both transferred before graduating.

  • M. Kolb

    Opera great Martina Arroyo, “Midnight at the Oasis” singer Maria Muldaur, rap artist Young MC, and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Broadway’s “In the Heights”) all graduated from Hunter College High School, as did composer Bobby Lopez (Broadway’s “Avenue Q”).

  • Be Love

    Janis Ian wrote and recorded “Society’s Child” while a student at Music & Art HS.

  • Smith

    From the Erasmus Alumni website: the reggae singer Shaggy. Also James “D-Train” Williams.

  • http://www.alkooper.com al kooper

    Al Kooper NEVER attended Martin Van Buren High School !!!!!

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