Janis Ian: At Seventeen

Remarks:

In 1975 this went to #3 on the US pop chart. It was decidedly unlike the other songs of the time about being a 17-year-old girl, like “Dancing Queen” (1976) by ABBA, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” (1978) by Meat Loaf, and “Edge of Seventeen” (1982) by Stevie Nicks (only the last of which was written by an actual woman).

Ian said in 2003:

“I wrote the first verse and chorus and it was so brutally honest. It’s hard to imagine now but people weren’t writing that type of song then. I was coming out of listening to people like Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, who did write those kind of songs, but pop music and folk music really didn’t.”

But with honesty, Billie Holiday also provided hope. So did Ian:

“To me it’s never been a depressing song. It says ‘ugly duckling girls like me,’ and to me the ugly duckling always turns into a swan. It offers hope that there is a world out there of people who understand.”

Knowing that the song would appeal to women way more than the men who ran the radio stations, she sent a copy of the song to their wives (!!!) and appeared on every daytime television show that would have her.

The song was originally titled “At Eighteen”, but “seventeen” fit the samba guitar she composed it on better. She herself was already famous nationwide by age 15, thanks to “Society’s Child” (1967), so it is actually about being 12 to 14.

Because of the line:

“The valentines I never knew”

her fans sent her Valentine’s Day cards!

In the video above she performs it live on the BBC in 1976.

See also:

• songs: the 1970s
• Billie Holiday
• Nina Simone

Lyrics:

I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired

The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth

And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone

Who called to say “Come dance with me”
And murmured vague obscenities
It isn’t all it seems
At seventeen

A brown eyed girl in hand-me-downs
Whose name I never could pronounce
Said, “Pity, please, the ones who serve
They only get what they deserve”

And the rich relationed hometown queen
Marries into what she needs
With a guarantee of company
And haven for the elderly

Remember those who win the game
Lose the love they sought to gain
In debentures of quality
And dubious integrity

Their small-town eyes will gape at you
In dull surprise when payment due
Exceeds accounts received
At seventeen

To those of us who knew the pain
Of valentines that never came
And those whose names were never called
When choosing sides for basketball

It was long ago and far away
The world was younger than today
When dreams were all they gave for free
To ugly duckling girls like me

We all play the game, and when we dare
To cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the phone
Repenting other lives unknown

They call and say, “Come dance with me”
And murmur vague obscenities
At ugly girls like me
At seventeen

Source: Songfacts.