AT SEVENTEEN
“At Seventeen” is a song by Janis Ian, released in 1975 on Between the Lines (her seventh studio album) and as a single. Ian’s most successful recording, the song is a commentary on society’s beauty standards, adolescent cruelty, the illusion of popularity, and teenage angst, as reflected upon from the maturity of adulthood. It is told from the point of view of a woman who was an “ugly duckling” as a girl and ignored in high school while the popular girls got all the attention. (More from Wikipedia)
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.
(January 2014)
