Singer-and-rapper Pharrell Williams was always getting told off during school classes for "banging out a beat" on his desk.

The 40-year-old star is currently enjoying huge success with his chart-topping collaborations 'Get Lucky' and 'Blurred Lines'.

Williams' former teachers Alan Sharps and Kim Love have revealed the superstar has always displayed signs of musical genius.

Love recalled: : “He’d come into my classroom and I’d have to tell him off because he’d be banging out a beat with his hands on the desk.”

She added in an interview with British newspaper The Sun: “Pharrell was always tired in school because he’d be up late at night in the recording studio. When he was 17 he told me he’d sold a song for $1,000. That was a lot of money for a teenager but I was worried people were taking advantage of him.

“He said to me: ‘Oh, Miss Love, don’t worry. I’m going to write plenty of other songs.’ He was very confident about that.”

Sharps - who was the band director at Princess Anne Elementary School when Pharrell was a pupil there - continued: “Pharrell was incredibly gifted and he loved to play drums.

He added: “He dabbled in the rap stuff but he was eclectic in his musical tastes — and he brought a lot of energy to the marching band. He’d come and sit in the stands and go through a routine that he’d thought up for the band. I’d make him go away and put it down on paper. He said later that this preparation helped him in his career.”