“Cherry Bomb” by John Mellencamp. An adult reminiscing about his teenage years.
Seventeen has turned thirty-five
I’m suprised that we’re still livin’
Wishing I was 21 - Corey Smith
Jethro Tull had a song called “17” very early in their career (1968 or '69). It’s a pretty lame song (and I love Tull, almost all Tull, up to about 1978), but there you go.
Also, if you get Chuck Berry’s aforementioned Little Queenie, consider going for the live Rolling Stones version (off Get Yer Ya Yas Out). It’s great.
The Airborne Toxic Event’s song Gasoline has the following lyrics:
When we were only seventeen
We were holding back our screams
Like we’d torn our lives
From the pages of some girly
Magazines
And you scratch and turn
And say “let’s burn these
Sheets down to the seams”
Like gasoline
Though the whole song is about “high school sex,” according to the lead singer, so it make be innapropriate for your party…
I am pretty sure this is referencing Chuck Berry (see post #23).
*"They only want you when you’re seventeen
when you’re twenty-one, you’re no fun
They take a polaroid and let you go
say they’ll let you know
so come on"*
You already have it on your list. Presumably it’s about the modelling world rather than e.g. internet porn. However a chap on Songmeanings has an alternative and all-too-plausible suggestion:
“the song is obviously about fishing. if you are too big(21 inches) they can’t legally keep you, so they take a picture and throw you back in. if you are the right size(17 inches) they want you. you guys read too much into these songs sometimes”
“English Boys” by Blondie is the only one I can think of that hasn’t been mentioned yet.
Jaqueline, by Franz Ferdinand:
Jacqueline was seventeen
Working on a desk
When Ivor
Peered above a spectacle
Forgot that he had wrecked a girl