Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink; April 7, 1951) is a singer-songwriter who was mostly active in the 1960’s and 1970’s; her most successful song “At Seventeen”, was released as a single from her 1975 album Between the Lines which reached number 1 on the Billboard chart. Born in 1951 in New York, Ian entered the American folk music scene while still a teenager in the mid-1960’s. Most active musically in that decade and the 1970’s, she has continued recording into the 21st century. (More from Wikipedia)
Janis Ian is a singer-songwriter who was only 13 when she wrote and recorded her first single about an interracial romance (perhaps the first song about that topic ever), “Society’s Child (Baby, I’ve Been Thinking)”. The history of this song is bathed in controversy, and “Society’s Child” was released three different times between 1965 and 1967; ultimately, the song reached #14 on the charts in the summer of 1967 and eventually sold 600,000 copies. Years later, the President of Atlantic Records, Jerry Wexler publicly apologized to Janis Ian for refusing to release the single and returning the master recording to her; “Society’s Child” finally came out on Verve/Forecast Records.
Janis Ian might have remained a most remarkable one-hit wonder had she not taken up other controversial issues – as related by Wikipedia, “adolescent cruelty, the illusion of popularity, and teenage angst” – with her biggest hit song “At Seventeen” (1975). The song and the accompanying album, Between the Lines both reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary Singles and Hot 100 Albums Billboard charts, respectively, with much less drama than had befallen “Society’s Child”. What’s more, Janis Ian won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance – Female that year, beating out Linda Ronstadt (whose breakthrough album Heart Like a Wheel had been nominated), as well as Olivia Newton-John and Helen Reddy.
Janis Ian has continued to release albums; Allmusic lists 21 studio albums. She publicly came out as a lesbian in 1993.
