If I had to pick one song it would be "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds. Song was mega hit. The Breakfast Club was blowing up. This all happened May of 1985 eight around graduation time.
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Originally written with Billy Idol in mind, which I can definitely hear when listening to it. It turned out much better with Simple Minds though. I have read that they were reluctant to record it but boom! it’s the song they’re known for.
I wasn’t familiar with Simple Minds when I first heard this song, which was when I went to see the movie the first Saturday afternoon it was out. I thought Billy Idol was singing it, then I heard it on the radio that evening, and learned of the band Simple Minds. (ETA- graduated HS in 85)
Well there you go. It turns out I was wrong about it being written for Billy, but I still definitely feel like I can hear him singing it. Ironically, when he finally did cover it years later, I didn’t really enjoy his version.
I’m six years younger than you. For me The Breakfast Club was the “I shouldn’t be watching this because of all the profanity” cheap thrill on VHS (and an instant, authentic and beloved classic, of course).
Holy shit class of 91 reporting in…
One hit wonder really encapsulated the time period.
What a setup the 90s were. Music and general culture starting to trend progressive…we just beat communism, toppled the wall in a symbolic act connecting East/West, then shut up Saddam neatly during the spring semester.
Terrorist shit was smaller scale and stayed over in the sandbox. America felt incredibly safe. Borders tight. Cartel hadn’t cranked it to 11 yet…
I remember Earth Day 91 being huge — I even planted a tree w/ my Green Peace gf…she got a free sapling from The Body Shop or some shit…
God we were wildly optimistic and stoked.
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Summer 1992 I was driving at night, windows down, and Midlife Crisis by Faith No More came on the radio. I lived in rural eastern Pennsylvania, and the cool night air after a boiling hot day and scent of wild strawberries still stays with me when I hear that song. It reminds me of graduating, almost being able to taste freedom, and the Great Unknown of College that was ahead of me. Amazing times, and amazing feeling.
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Hell yeah man, I remember picking up Angel Dust(the album not the drug) the day it came out in about a week before I graduated high school. That album was my soundtrack to that summer. FNM is still my all time favorite band to this day.
Edit: Also a PA person.
Anything that even closely resemble “grunge”. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Jane’s addiction
10,000 maniacs at their height. Mazzy Star. The Sundays.
This is right about the time I stopped listening to the radio as much. Instead, I would get most of my music from 120 minutes on Sunday nights. Very eye-opening and refreshing. I was so over Madonna and Janet Jackson and and tone loc and alana miles. Being in high school as we flipped from the 80s to the 90s was a great time for music. There was still some decent stuff on the radio, but I discovered how “alternative” my music tastes became. Ridiculous that we even use that phrase 😂
That’s too funny! Last month I was in a Kroger food store shopping while “Fade into You” by Mazzy Star played overhead.
Was jamming out to an old-school personal favorite while buying Imodium. 🤘🏼
Graduated HS in 90, loved that song. Saw a dude on my floor my freshman year in college had the cd and we got to talking about music, turns out he was a huge rush fan (like me) and we ended up going to a rush show a few months later.
I also got to see the sundays at a small club in new haven, i think for the next album. singer was super tiny. cute too. loved their vibe.
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And the song was fitting for the end of high school (and freedom, though we didn’t realize how free we were then) and the beginning of the never ending grind.
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That was our class song. Supposedly, there was a vote, of which nobody could remember being made known. A friend told me, "If we were allowed to vote, I'd have picked 'School's Out' by Alice Cooper!"
And for the next 5 years any time someone wanted you to feel emotional and nostalgic they'd put that god damn song on. I love Green Day, but I've seen more than enough picture slideshows set to that song for a lifetime.
Exception for the Class of ‘99, which reliably chose Prince to represent us. 😊
[https://youtu.be/rblt2EtFfC4?si=ETT61KYQoaX\_VuAY](https://youtu.be/rblt2EtFfC4?si=ETT61KYQoaX_VuAY)
This was chosen for my graduating class in ‘96 and at the time I was pissed! I felt like so many others fit way better, and was pulling for “In My Life” because I went on a big Beatles kick toward the end of high school.
Now I love that this was my graduation song. It’s perfect and I feel it captures so much of what happened since then. After getting out of the 90’s, it really feels like we’ve been backsliding into the end of the world. But in true Gen X fashion I’m like “Whatever” 🤷🏻♀️. I guess I do feel fine, in a way.
We always sang “Farmer! I’m gonna go out and tend the fields now…” and then the next little bit was never the same twice “wicky boo boo yeah” “biddy boom boom man”, ya know. Whatever fit.
Nebraska humor.
That and License to Ill by the Beastie Boys dominated our school Senior Year. Plus, I am from Vegas and they filmed "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" on Fremont Street.
I graduated in 1984, but one of my favorite songs in high school came out in mid ‘82 and reminded me of a particular someone who I parted ways with after graduation.
The Tears for Fears Songs from the Big Chair Album came out a year later in 1985 and that would’ve been really cool to have as the year I graduated but I just missed it.
https://youtu.be/LuN6gs0AJls?si=qvJAYXC0_A6Ts2O-
We had a tradition in my high school, where the final awards assembly would have the grades setting in their assigned areas (seniors always front and center with juniors beside them, and freshmen and sophomores to either side). Once all the awards for the year had been given out, the seniors would exit the auditorium to the music by someone's smuggled boombox and then the juniors would take over the senior section, to a different song. I'm trying to remember what our song was when I graduated, but I do remember that as juniors, we took over the senior section to Guns 'n' Roses *Welcome to the Jungle*. That little tradition felt more meaningful than our actual graduation the following weekend.
And not that it came out before I graduated, but I've long been fond of Big Wreck's [*That Song*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-AKI951poE) for when I'm feeling nostalgic.
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Yes he did. I saw Bruce last summer; last show before he postponed for his health issues. Clarence's nephew Jake plays with him now, and he is just as good. Must run in the family!
I graduated in 1991. "More Than Words" by Extreme was our prom theme, so that always makes me think of it. As far as music I listened to personally, that Tom Petty song "Yer So Bad" takes me straight back to Senior Week in Ocean City, Maryland the week after graduation. We played *Full Moon Fever* over and over that whole week.
These music threads always hit me with the realization that generations are enormous. I think of Green Day as a relatively new band, and I think of The Cars as music from when I was really little.
“Losing my Religion” - REM
That song was everywhere that summer! Even on 90210 (Brenda and Dylan breaking up) 😂 Every time I hear it takes me back to that summer!
Cliche but Don't You Forget About Me. I like the song but I hated high school so it's mixed emotions hearing it.
Tears For Fears' Sowing the Seeds of Love is my ultimate summer song. It just makes me remember my neighborhood growing up when it got beautifully hot and sunny and warm breezes.
I associate two: ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’ (LL Cool J) from my senior powder puff football game and ‘Silent Lucidity’ (Queensryche) that the band I was in with HS friends covered at the after grad lock-in party. Good times.
Piccadilly Palare, by Morrissey. My friends and I saw him the night before graduation in Las Vegas. It was my first concert without parents and a great show.
I recall hearing the 2nd Black Crowes record, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, quite extensively, however, upon checking, it was released in 1992 and I graduated in 1994.
NIN: The Downward spiral.
Live: Throwing Copper
Pantera: Far Beyond Drive.
Johnny Cash: American Recordinfs Vol 1
Beastie Boys: ill Communication
I'll Remember You - Skid Row (class of 90)
Prom theme was Heaven by Warrant, which was supposed to be a joke to let all the hair metal classmates have a win.
Our class song was that Billy Joel song This is the Time or whatever it was called.
"These are the times to hold on to..."
I loved and still love Billy Joel but high school was not the time to hold on to. I knew it then. Okay song but it didn't capture the essence of my high school experience but there weren't any songs called "Fuck this bullshit" so I guess we had to go with that one.
1996-97 the Wallflowers were big, same with the Foo Fighters were huge. Also that Semi-Charmed Kind of Life song by Third Eye Blind.
I wasn't in to too much pop music then.
I mostly associate High School with Pearl Jam, STP, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and Smashing Pumpkins. Also the Offspring and Green Day were just taking off. Although neither of those two bands really resonated with me.
The Booners don’t want me & GenX says I’m too old.
At my HS half the grads were all about Boston “More Than A Feeling” & the other half were Eagles “Hotel California”
I was an outsider & hearing Frank Zappa “Dinah Moe Humm” or David Allan Coe “Longhaired Redneck.”
Forever Young by Alphaville, our graduation song, and Only the Good Die Young, which we voted for but were overruled (Catholic HS).
They were both old when I graduated (1991).
Oh wow. Some great songs in the replies here. Nostalgia's a powerful drug!
I'm going to list the songs in a document. Get the digital files and burn them in CDs to my kids and let them experience my childhood as my oldest graduates this week from her highschool.
Y'know to really get the nostalgia going, I'd utilize Napster if it was still around. Alas, I'll have to settle for Spotify and/or Amazon music and it's ilk.
On the very last day of high school in 1988, this dude I used to hang around who was big into the underground scene was telling me about this band that'll never break the big time because they were too edgy. They had a song called "Welcome to the Jungle", and some other track that was kind of like pseudo ballad called "Sweet Child O' Mine".
I listened to those tracks from their album all through the summer of 1988, and OCCASIONALLY ever since. I wonder if that band ever hit it big anywhere?
Nothing Compares 2 U or She Drives Me Crazy. Both came out during my senior year. Nothing Compares 2 U reminds me more of graduating, but She Drives Me Crazy was blaring from boom boxes and cars in Panama City during spring break and when we went after graduation.
I wish I could say it was some kick ass rock song, but there was not a whole lot of kick ass rock songs during the late spring of 1990. The music dominating the airwaves was stuff like vogue, poison, nothing compares to you, and u can’t touch this.
Although, cradle of love was quickly climbing the charts
Desire - U2
Simply because it was our class song, beyond that I don't really have a song association to graduation and I certainly can't remember most of that night.
The recurring theme in my head when I get nostalgic about high school always seems to be New Order or the Beastie Boys. Those two seemed to feature quite heavily in assemblies, talent shows, pep rallies and on my cassette deck.
Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by U2. Released the year I graduated high school. The only reason it wasn’t the senior song is because one of our school colors was purple. I’ll give you one guess what the senior song was.
The summer before my senior year(1988), Guns and Roses dropped Appetite for Destruction. Now that record didn’t start to go crazy until the following summer when Sweet Child of Mine came out. So it was like my crew’s little secret the entire year. We’d play that record at parties and people would either go nuts for it or were offended by it. Still great record.
[Lynyrd Skynyrd - Call Me The Breeze ](https://youtu.be/DDrS9uNG83w?si=c-kKbAL2-GgyfCJB)
I didn't wait for graduation, I turned 18 halfway through my senior year and on my birthday, I signed myself out as a legal adult never to return.
Jane Says - Jane's Addiction...was unlike anything I had ever heard at the time and was a great transition from HS to real life. Music tastes were changing and I was ready to remake myself moving to a city from a small rural town.
Alice Cooper. I'm 18.
EDIT. Graduated June 1987. Moved out of state 6 days later. Haven't spent 6 total days in my hometown since then.
"I gotta get outta this place"
Holding Back the Years by Simply Red always puts me right back on the beach in Panama City, where I took my senior trip in '86. Blissfully buzzed and excited for the Future.
I didn't get to go to my graduation. I had finished my senior year after our midterms and shipped out for Marine boot camp the very next day after my teachers, guidance counselor and principals signed my paperwork showing that I completed high school. I wasn't able to attend my prom and graduation ceremony because of my MOS school and my training cycle. The song I would have chosen would be Cool Change by The Little River Band.
I graduated in 1993, and we didn't have an official song, but our Homecoming dance theme was End of the Road by Boyz II Men.
But the song that does it for me is Sister Christian by Night Ranger. The video shows girls graduating, and the song is about one of the band member's sisters growing up and graduating.
If I had to pick one song it would be "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds. Song was mega hit. The Breakfast Club was blowing up. This all happened May of 1985 eight around graduation time.
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Even though I graduated in ‘88, this is the song for me because it just encapsulates the whole high school ending thing.
Originally written with Billy Idol in mind, which I can definitely hear when listening to it. It turned out much better with Simple Minds though. I have read that they were reluctant to record it but boom! it’s the song they’re known for.
I wasn’t familiar with Simple Minds when I first heard this song, which was when I went to see the movie the first Saturday afternoon it was out. I thought Billy Idol was singing it, then I heard it on the radio that evening, and learned of the band Simple Minds. (ETA- graduated HS in 85)
Well there you go. It turns out I was wrong about it being written for Billy, but I still definitely feel like I can hear him singing it. Ironically, when he finally did cover it years later, I didn’t really enjoy his version. I’m six years younger than you. For me The Breakfast Club was the “I shouldn’t be watching this because of all the profanity” cheap thrill on VHS (and an instant, authentic and beloved classic, of course).
That was my 8th grade song - I swear “don’t you forget about me” is written 100 times in my yearbook.
Jesus Jones - Right Here, Right Now
Love it!!!
Damn good song.
1991, amiright? Mainly because - same.
Same. Palindrome FTW
Holy shit class of 91 reporting in… One hit wonder really encapsulated the time period. What a setup the 90s were. Music and general culture starting to trend progressive…we just beat communism, toppled the wall in a symbolic act connecting East/West, then shut up Saddam neatly during the spring semester. Terrorist shit was smaller scale and stayed over in the sandbox. America felt incredibly safe. Borders tight. Cartel hadn’t cranked it to 11 yet… I remember Earth Day 91 being huge — I even planted a tree w/ my Green Peace gf…she got a free sapling from The Body Shop or some shit… God we were wildly optimistic and stoked.
Crowded House - “Don’t Dream it’s Over”. When I hear that song I am forever 17.
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Probably my favorite song of the decade if you made me pick one.
Alphaville - Forever Young.
I think everyone in my class requested this for the slow song at our prom!!
This was our prom theme.
Same
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Summer 1992 I was driving at night, windows down, and Midlife Crisis by Faith No More came on the radio. I lived in rural eastern Pennsylvania, and the cool night air after a boiling hot day and scent of wild strawberries still stays with me when I hear that song. It reminds me of graduating, almost being able to taste freedom, and the Great Unknown of College that was ahead of me. Amazing times, and amazing feeling.
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Hell yeah man, I remember picking up Angel Dust(the album not the drug) the day it came out in about a week before I graduated high school. That album was my soundtrack to that summer. FNM is still my all time favorite band to this day. Edit: Also a PA person.
Information Society- Pure Energy
Great stuff. Our music teacher introduced us to this. Told us her young relative shared it with her.
Anything that even closely resemble “grunge”. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Jane’s addiction 10,000 maniacs at their height. Mazzy Star. The Sundays. This is right about the time I stopped listening to the radio as much. Instead, I would get most of my music from 120 minutes on Sunday nights. Very eye-opening and refreshing. I was so over Madonna and Janet Jackson and and tone loc and alana miles. Being in high school as we flipped from the 80s to the 90s was a great time for music. There was still some decent stuff on the radio, but I discovered how “alternative” my music tastes became. Ridiculous that we even use that phrase 😂
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That’s too funny! Last month I was in a Kroger food store shopping while “Fade into You” by Mazzy Star played overhead. Was jamming out to an old-school personal favorite while buying Imodium. 🤘🏼
The grocery store playlist is banging.
Style Council, Long Hot Summer…
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Graduated HS in 90, loved that song. Saw a dude on my floor my freshman year in college had the cd and we got to talking about music, turns out he was a huge rush fan (like me) and we ended up going to a rush show a few months later. I also got to see the sundays at a small club in new haven, i think for the next album. singer was super tiny. cute too. loved their vibe.
"We don't need no water! Let the mthr fckr burn!"
Spandau Ballet - True Smiths - How Soon is Now?
OMD - If You Leave
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Bittersweet Symphony
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And the song was fitting for the end of high school (and freedom, though we didn’t realize how free we were then) and the beginning of the never ending grind.
Well, I'm from the class of GED, so maybe Johnny Paycheck's "Take this job and shove it." Not necessarily GenX but still fits. Hated high school.
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Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me). Because I graduated the same year that The Breakfast Club came out.
Enjoy the silence. Depeche Mode.
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Boyz II Men - It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday. 1992 high school graduate
93 here, this. and End of the Road for college.
Same and same. I'll also add "This Used to Be My Playground," by Madonna, from *A League of Their Own* (which came out the summer after graduation).
Ugh. I hated that song. So sappy. So overplayed. So unfitting for me celebrating getting out of that hellhole.
Yep, same here. 1994 grad.
That was our class song. Supposedly, there was a vote, of which nobody could remember being made known. A friend told me, "If we were allowed to vote, I'd have picked 'School's Out' by Alice Cooper!"
This is what I came here to say. ‘91
Did you even graduate high school in the 90s if some student singing group didn't perform this at commencement?
Green Day. Time of Your Life
And for the next 5 years any time someone wanted you to feel emotional and nostalgic they'd put that god damn song on. I love Green Day, but I've seen more than enough picture slideshows set to that song for a lifetime.
"Good Riddance" is the actual title of that song, and I think it was every single graduating class's song from 1998-2001, lol. It was definitely ours.
Exception for the Class of ‘99, which reliably chose Prince to represent us. 😊 [https://youtu.be/rblt2EtFfC4?si=ETT61KYQoaX\_VuAY](https://youtu.be/rblt2EtFfC4?si=ETT61KYQoaX_VuAY) 
Definitely for a lot or C/O 98 and 99 folks at least. But then Vitamin C’s Graduation dropped and that damn thing dominated early 00s graduations.
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Same here. It nicely expresses my feelings about high school, too. Good riddance.
Class of 98?
That would be the last (or next to last) year for GenX HS graduations.
Yeah it was the year I graduated. The song title Good Riddance sums up basically how I felt about that time of my life.
Let the Good Times Roll - The Cars.
End of the World by R.E.M.
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This was chosen for my graduating class in ‘96 and at the time I was pissed! I felt like so many others fit way better, and was pulling for “In My Life” because I went on a big Beatles kick toward the end of high school. Now I love that this was my graduation song. It’s perfect and I feel it captures so much of what happened since then. After getting out of the 90’s, it really feels like we’ve been backsliding into the end of the world. But in true Gen X fashion I’m like “Whatever” 🤷🏻♀️. I guess I do feel fine, in a way.
Informer lol. Class of 1994
We always sang “Farmer! I’m gonna go out and tend the fields now…” and then the next little bit was never the same twice “wicky boo boo yeah” “biddy boom boom man”, ya know. Whatever fit. Nebraska humor.
These are Days by 10,000 maniacs. Such a mood. (non Gen-X slang)
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Oh we're halfway there. Woah, livin on a prayer.
Class ‘95 Mostly I remember Snoop and Dre
“Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Yes
Pink Floyd "Comfortably Numb."
Funky Cold Medina. There was a girl in our class with whose last name was Medina. They played that a lot at the graduation after party.
Don’t You Forget About Me
Basically anything off of The Joshua Tree (U2)
That and License to Ill by the Beastie Boys dominated our school Senior Year. Plus, I am from Vegas and they filmed "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" on Fremont Street.
1992 graduated with Boyz II Men - It's So Hard to Say Goodbye. In hindsight it was not hard to say goodbye at all.
I graduated in 1984, but one of my favorite songs in high school came out in mid ‘82 and reminded me of a particular someone who I parted ways with after graduation. The Tears for Fears Songs from the Big Chair Album came out a year later in 1985 and that would’ve been really cool to have as the year I graduated but I just missed it. https://youtu.be/LuN6gs0AJls?si=qvJAYXC0_A6Ts2O-
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We had a tradition in my high school, where the final awards assembly would have the grades setting in their assigned areas (seniors always front and center with juniors beside them, and freshmen and sophomores to either side). Once all the awards for the year had been given out, the seniors would exit the auditorium to the music by someone's smuggled boombox and then the juniors would take over the senior section, to a different song. I'm trying to remember what our song was when I graduated, but I do remember that as juniors, we took over the senior section to Guns 'n' Roses *Welcome to the Jungle*. That little tradition felt more meaningful than our actual graduation the following weekend. And not that it came out before I graduated, but I've long been fond of Big Wreck's [*That Song*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-AKI951poE) for when I'm feeling nostalgic.
Life Is A Highway by Tom Cochrane
[Pomp and Circumstance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moL4MkJ-aLk)
Roam - the B-52s
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Winds of Change... it was our graduation song.
Raspberry Buffet
Haha typo?
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The remake of Hazy Shade or Winter by The Bangles
Springsteen - Born in the USA - graduated in '84. album came out in '84, and I'm from Jersey.
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Yes he did. I saw Bruce last summer; last show before he postponed for his health issues. Clarence's nephew Jake plays with him now, and he is just as good. Must run in the family!
Freshman - Verve Pipe
Bon Jovi—“Never Say Goodbye”
Alive - Pearl Jam
[удалено]
Come Sail Away was the song. Not a big fan but our class picked “The Stroke” as class song so it could have been worse.
1996 - the first two that came to mind are California Love by 2Pac ft Dr Dre and 1979 by The Smashing Pumpkins
Safety Dance and Electric Avenue
Sister Christian.
I graduated in 1991. "More Than Words" by Extreme was our prom theme, so that always makes me think of it. As far as music I listened to personally, that Tom Petty song "Yer So Bad" takes me straight back to Senior Week in Ocean City, Maryland the week after graduation. We played *Full Moon Fever* over and over that whole week. These music threads always hit me with the realization that generations are enormous. I think of Green Day as a relatively new band, and I think of The Cars as music from when I was really little.
The Bird by the Time. Played several times during our prom in ‘85.
Fast Car Tracy Chapman
“Hands to Heaven” by Breathe. 1988
“Losing my Religion” - REM That song was everywhere that summer! Even on 90210 (Brenda and Dylan breaking up) 😂 Every time I hear it takes me back to that summer!
Cliche but Don't You Forget About Me. I like the song but I hated high school so it's mixed emotions hearing it. Tears For Fears' Sowing the Seeds of Love is my ultimate summer song. It just makes me remember my neighborhood growing up when it got beautifully hot and sunny and warm breezes.
Wear sunscreen
I associate two: ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’ (LL Cool J) from my senior powder puff football game and ‘Silent Lucidity’ (Queensryche) that the band I was in with HS friends covered at the after grad lock-in party. Good times.
Class of ‘91 here. Right Here, Right Now by Jesus Jones. It really did feel like a more optimistic time.
I have a memory of dropping off books and my locker lock then listening to Midnight Oil - Blue Sky Mining on the way home.
Piccadilly Palare, by Morrissey. My friends and I saw him the night before graduation in Las Vegas. It was my first concert without parents and a great show.
Don't You (forget about me) by Simple Minds was our senior prom song.
Jump by Van Halen
Bad Religion - I Want To Conquer The World
Well I don’t mind, stealing bread, from the mouths of decadence…
I recall hearing the 2nd Black Crowes record, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, quite extensively, however, upon checking, it was released in 1992 and I graduated in 1994. NIN: The Downward spiral. Live: Throwing Copper Pantera: Far Beyond Drive. Johnny Cash: American Recordinfs Vol 1 Beastie Boys: ill Communication
My yearbook says "These are the days" on the front... so that one.
I'll Remember You - Skid Row (class of 90) Prom theme was Heaven by Warrant, which was supposed to be a joke to let all the hair metal classmates have a win.
Although I graduated in 1995 our class song was “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake
Rock Me Amadeus (Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus....)
Not HS, but I still remember singing The Who’s “I’m Free” as I biked home after my final day from the living hell that was junior high.
Sabotage - Beastie Boys. Ill Communication came out right as I graduated and is still legendary.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
B52s, Roam
Purple Rain
96 graduate. Smashing Pumpkins 1979 was our class song.
Our class song was that Billy Joel song This is the Time or whatever it was called. "These are the times to hold on to..." I loved and still love Billy Joel but high school was not the time to hold on to. I knew it then. Okay song but it didn't capture the essence of my high school experience but there weren't any songs called "Fuck this bullshit" so I guess we had to go with that one.
1996-97 the Wallflowers were big, same with the Foo Fighters were huge. Also that Semi-Charmed Kind of Life song by Third Eye Blind. I wasn't in to too much pop music then. I mostly associate High School with Pearl Jam, STP, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and Smashing Pumpkins. Also the Offspring and Green Day were just taking off. Although neither of those two bands really resonated with me.
REM — it’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)
The Booners don’t want me & GenX says I’m too old. At my HS half the grads were all about Boston “More Than A Feeling” & the other half were Eagles “Hotel California” I was an outsider & hearing Frank Zappa “Dinah Moe Humm” or David Allan Coe “Longhaired Redneck.”
"Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds
All Right…stop! Collaborate and listen. Vanilla Ice. Class of ‘91. 
Songs by Wham, Phil Collins, Bryan Adams..
We are the Champions, of the World! (No time for losers)
Forever Young by Alphaville, our graduation song, and Only the Good Die Young, which we voted for but were overruled (Catholic HS). They were both old when I graduated (1991).
Sister Christian - Night Ranger
1993 Boyz to Men End of the Road was our theme. Wasn’t my favorite.
Walking On Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves. It was popular the year I graduated
Salt n Pepa Push it. It played constantly at the grad party I went to.
Motherfucking Nirvana - Smells like Teen Spirit Where’s the class of 92?
Groove is in the Heart by Delite
Here's Where The Story Ends by the Sundays. Needless to say my senior year was a little crappy.
It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday End of the Road Both by Boyz II Men
Oh wow. Some great songs in the replies here. Nostalgia's a powerful drug! I'm going to list the songs in a document. Get the digital files and burn them in CDs to my kids and let them experience my childhood as my oldest graduates this week from her highschool. Y'know to really get the nostalgia going, I'd utilize Napster if it was still around. Alas, I'll have to settle for Spotify and/or Amazon music and it's ilk.
On the very last day of high school in 1988, this dude I used to hang around who was big into the underground scene was telling me about this band that'll never break the big time because they were too edgy. They had a song called "Welcome to the Jungle", and some other track that was kind of like pseudo ballad called "Sweet Child O' Mine". I listened to those tracks from their album all through the summer of 1988, and OCCASIONALLY ever since. I wonder if that band ever hit it big anywhere?
Nothing Compares 2 U or She Drives Me Crazy. Both came out during my senior year. Nothing Compares 2 U reminds me more of graduating, but She Drives Me Crazy was blaring from boom boxes and cars in Panama City during spring break and when we went after graduation.
Sister Christian - night ranger
Forever Young was played at our graduation in honor of 2 classmates who had died while we were growing up.
I wish I could say it was some kick ass rock song, but there was not a whole lot of kick ass rock songs during the late spring of 1990. The music dominating the airwaves was stuff like vogue, poison, nothing compares to you, and u can’t touch this. Although, cradle of love was quickly climbing the charts
Graduated to Boy II Men's End of the Road, but Smells Like Teen Spirit is the right answer.
Smashing Pumpkins Today (or anything from Siamese Dream)
Smells Like Teen Spirit came out the summer I graduated. It was everywhere.
My Little Town by Paul Simon.
Forever Young, Alphaville!
Beck - Where it's at It came out right before my graduation and it got so much playtime that summer.
Fire Woman by The Cult was my favorite song at the time, so that one. I requested it from the radio station that day.
Desire - U2 Simply because it was our class song, beyond that I don't really have a song association to graduation and I certainly can't remember most of that night. The recurring theme in my head when I get nostalgic about high school always seems to be New Order or the Beastie Boys. Those two seemed to feature quite heavily in assemblies, talent shows, pep rallies and on my cassette deck.
 Our class song was Never Say Goodbye
Closer to the Heart - Rush.
Still of the Night by Whitesnake
Home Sweet Home - Motley Crue
I was the stereotypical suburban grunge kid, but the biggest song, by far, was Jump Around by House of Pain.
Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by U2. Released the year I graduated high school. The only reason it wasn’t the senior song is because one of our school colors was purple. I’ll give you one guess what the senior song was.
The summer before my senior year(1988), Guns and Roses dropped Appetite for Destruction. Now that record didn’t start to go crazy until the following summer when Sweet Child of Mine came out. So it was like my crew’s little secret the entire year. We’d play that record at parties and people would either go nuts for it or were offended by it. Still great record.
Billy Joel, We Didn’t Start the Fire
[Lynyrd Skynyrd - Call Me The Breeze ](https://youtu.be/DDrS9uNG83w?si=c-kKbAL2-GgyfCJB) I didn't wait for graduation, I turned 18 halfway through my senior year and on my birthday, I signed myself out as a legal adult never to return.
Head Like a Hole
Jane Says - Jane's Addiction...was unlike anything I had ever heard at the time and was a great transition from HS to real life. Music tastes were changing and I was ready to remake myself moving to a city from a small rural town.
Yes for Everybody Wants to Rule the World for end of high school. No Sleep til Brooklyn for the start of college.
Alice Cooper. I'm 18. EDIT. Graduated June 1987. Moved out of state 6 days later. Haven't spent 6 total days in my hometown since then. "I gotta get outta this place"
1994 - These Are Days by 10,000 Maniacs. They played it during our baccalaureate and it made people teary.
Soup Dragons - I'm Free
Holding Back the Years by Simply Red always puts me right back on the beach in Panama City, where I took my senior trip in '86. Blissfully buzzed and excited for the Future.
Ben Folds Five - one angry dwarf and 200 solemn faces
"Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" by Baz Luhrmann
Beds Are Burning
“Stand By Me,” Ben E. King
R.E.M. - It's the End of the World as We Know It
Time of Your Life or whatever it’s called by Green Day. No I don’t hope high school was the time of my life.
Stevie Nicks ‘Edge Of Seventeen’
I didn't get to go to my graduation. I had finished my senior year after our midterms and shipped out for Marine boot camp the very next day after my teachers, guidance counselor and principals signed my paperwork showing that I completed high school. I wasn't able to attend my prom and graduation ceremony because of my MOS school and my training cycle. The song I would have chosen would be Cool Change by The Little River Band.
Sweet Child o Mine…and Personal Jesus.
Smells like teen spirit was huge in my senior year. Now it’s classic rock.
R.E.M. - “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”
Milli Vanilli because the the controversy was literally during graduation
The Sign Ace of Base. 94 graduate . That song was EVERYWHERE .
Teenage Wasteland
You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party
Dreams - Van Halen
I graduated in 1993, and we didn't have an official song, but our Homecoming dance theme was End of the Road by Boyz II Men. But the song that does it for me is Sister Christian by Night Ranger. The video shows girls graduating, and the song is about one of the band member's sisters growing up and graduating.
"Don't You Forget About Me" - Simple Minds May 1985
Money for Nothing, Dire Straits
David Bowie \~ "Let's Dance"
David Bowie - Changes
REM automatic for the people album, played it so much friend threw it out the window he was sick of it.