# Songs about being 17 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 8, 2012, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122 "2012-03-08T05:18:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/21 "2012-03-08T09:45:03Z")
Drive-By Truckers - _Zip City_ “Maybe you’re just a destination, a place for me to go A way to keep from having to deal with my seventeen-year-old mind all alone” ---
**Author:** ![BlueOhio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@BlueOhio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueOhio)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/22 "2012-03-08T13:01:47Z")
“Just About Seventeen” by Jonathan Richaman and the Modern Lovers; a sweet song. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/kmdLE5wS6U8/hqdefault.jpg "Just About Seventeen - Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmdLE5wS6U8) ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/23 "2012-03-08T16:06:53Z")
“Little Queenie” by Chuck Berry: “Won’t someone tell me who’s the queen standin’ over by the record machine Well she looks like a model on the cover of a magazine She’s too cute to be a minute over seventeen” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/24 "2012-03-08T16:28:21Z")
A great one I haven’t seen mentioned yet: “Let’s Go” by the Cars - "She’s driving away With the dim lights on She’s making her play And she can’t go wrong She never waits too long She’s winding them down Onn her clock machine. And she won’t give up Because she’s seventeen."\* ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/25 "2012-03-08T16:32:27Z")
Peter and Gordan’s Lady Godiva: “Seventeen, a beauty queen…” ---
**Author:** ![I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Made_French_Toast_For_You)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/26 "2012-03-08T16:32:29Z")
Here’s [17](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4_x063rhX4) by Youth Lagoon, if you’re looking for something contemporary, fuzzy and low-key. ---
**Author:** ![Omphaloskeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bcef8e/32.png) [@Omphaloskeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omphaloskeptic)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/27 "2012-03-08T17:28:41Z")
Posted earlier by [**Garfield226**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13931227&postcount=15) in a music video thread: [Seventeen](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLwS4SxLwqQ) by Matt Kresling. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/28 "2012-03-08T18:00:54Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > I would avoid [\*Seventeen \*by Winger](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QcgCSkExEI). As well as [Seventeen](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq5cpBMrsmc&feature=related)by Foreigner off of their Headgames album… (it’s a big, dumb kinda misogynist 70’s rock song (Foreigner seems to specialize in stuff like that - _Women_, anyone?) , but I must admit it’s a guilty pleasure…) ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/29 "2012-03-08T18:47:02Z")
[Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQQA5KtDCOs), by Joni Mitchell _I’m leaving on the 1:15 You’re darn right Since I was seventeen I’ve had no one over me_ ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/30 "2012-03-08T18:53:06Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > Jackson Browne, “Running on Empty”–“In '65, I was seventeen and running up one-oh-one…” > (101 is a highway, I assume?) Yup. US 101 is also known as Ventura Highway in Los Angeles. So there’s a good tune by Jackson Browne which mentions it, and a shitty one by America which also does. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/31 "2012-03-08T21:03:53Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > “Dancing Queen” isn’t exactly _about_ it, but it is about the freedom and daring of youth (as far as I can tell), so close enough? Well it specifically says “young and free, only seventeen (oh-oh)”. Of course it depends on whether you think inflicting ABBA on the guests is a good or a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/32 "2012-03-08T21:34:35Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > Yup. US 101 is also known as Ventura Highway in Los Angeles. So there’s a good tune by Jackson Browne which mentions it, and a shitty one by America which also does. I thought it was required to refer to California highways by using the mandatory definite article. But “the one-oh-one” doesn’t scan so well. ---
**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/33 "2012-03-08T21:42:17Z")
In addition to Winger, you might want to avoid [17 by Kingdom Come](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG8HTQBUkoQ) A great 80’s song IMHO, but rather inappropriate. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/34 "2012-03-08T23:37:25Z")
You have to wait until the end of the chorus, but Sam Cooke’s _Only Sixteen_ is a smile. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/35 "2012-03-09T00:53:23Z")
You also might try Sweet Seventeen by The Babys but listen to it first – it might give her bad inspirations G! Fif-teen, Six-teen, Seven -teen . Sweet Seventeen! . John Waite (The Babys) . _Sweet Seventeen_ ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/36 "2012-03-09T02:11:45Z")
> [@Valerieblaise](#): > > “[I Love Rock & Roll](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AT_Pbtyid0)” has the lines, “I saw her dancing there by the record machine/ I knew she must’ve been about 17” in the original version by the Arrows. > > [Joan Jett’s cover](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JuD9umfGo8&feature=related) changes the ‘her’ to ‘him’ and the ‘she’ to ‘he’ and is way more awesome because it’s Joan Jett. Funnily enough, it would have been more accurate for her to have left the female pronouns in. 🙂 How about [“Strawberry Wine” by Deana Carter?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up06CryWQpE) _Like strawberry wine and seventeen The hot July moon saw everything My first taste of love, oh, bittersweet The green on the vine like strawberry wine_ ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/37 "2012-03-09T02:24:40Z")
Maybe not the tone you’re going for, but “She Is Always 17” by Harry Chapin might be worth a look. It’s a political rant focusing on a woman protestor who always has the boundless energy and idealism of a 17-year-old. She has no fear of failure She’s not benched with broken dreams Cause the future’s just beginning When you’re always seventeen I’m a big Chapin fan, but I admit it’s not one of his best. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/38 "2012-03-09T02:39:28Z")
Oh, and in “Emma” by Hot Chocolate, Emma is a girl “with a face like an angel” who “could have been been anything.” She gets married at 17 and goes in search of fame. It… doesn’t end well. ---
**Author:** ![Hakuna\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hakuna\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hakuna_Matata)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/39 "2012-03-09T04:12:21Z")
I just wanted to say–these all rock. Thanks, I thought I had a good list but there were several good additions. One of the main reasons I like the Dope–lots of diversity. Thanks again. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122/40 "2012-03-10T15:54:32Z")
[“Doreen” by the Old 97’s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcRc7Ng2ui0) is a fun one although it might not exactly be the message you want to send to your daughter. 😃 _“When I first met Doreen She was barely seventeen She was drinking whiskey sours in a bar The way she knocked 'em back I would have had a heart attack But as it is I let her drive my car”_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-being-17/615122.md?page=3)