Edge of Seventeen

"Edge of Seventeen" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks. It was the third single from her 1981 solo debut album, Bella Donna.

Written by Nicks to express the grief resulting from the death of her uncle Jonathan and the murder of John Lennon during the same week of December 1980, the song features a distinctive, chugging 16th-note guitar riff, and a simple chord structure typical of Nicks' songs.

Released as the third single from Bella Donna in early 1982, it barely missed out on the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 making #11 and the live version on the B-side reached #26 on Billboard‍ '​s Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The album track had previously made the Top 5 of Billboard‍ '​s Mainstream Rock chart in 1981, peaking at number four. Despite not reaching the top ten, it became one of Nicks' most enduring and recognizable songs, and has been covered by many artists. The distinctive riff was sampled by Destiny's Child in their 2001 song "Bootylicious", with Nicks making a cameo appearance in the music video playing a guitar.

Inspiration

According to Nicks, the title came from a conversation she had with Tom Petty's first wife, Jane, about the couple's first meeting. Jane said they met "at the age of seventeen", but her strong Southern accent made it sound like "edge of seventeen" to Nicks. The singer liked the sound of the phrase so much that she told Jane she would write a song for it and give her credit for the inspiration

Although Nicks had originally planned to use the title for a song about Tom and Jane Petty,[3] the deaths of both her uncle Jonathan and John Lennon during the same week of December 1980 inspired a new song for which Nicks used the title. Nicks's producer and friend, Jimmy Iovine, was a close friend of Lennon, and Nicks felt helpless to comfort him. Soon after, she flew home to Phoenix, Arizona, to be with her uncle Jonathan, who was dying of cancer. She remained with her uncle and his family until his death.[4]

Composition Throughout the song a distinctive 16th note guitar riff is played by Waddy Wachtel, progressing through C, D, and E-minor chords. During the bridge, the chords alternate twice between E-minor and C. Wachtel claimed[5] that The Police's "Bring on the Night" was the inspiration for the riff. This claim is further backed up in Andy Summers memoir One Train Later when he states that after a show in L.A. in 1981 Stevie Nicks asked to meet him.[citation needed]

As is typical of Nicks' songs, the lyrics are highly symbolic. Nicks has said that the white-winged dove represents the spirit leaving the body on death, and some of the verses capture her experience of the days leading up to her uncle Jonathan's death.[6]

The part in the song that has Nicks and her back-up singers singing "ooohh baby ooohh" is meant to sound like a dove singing, similar to an owl "whoooing".[citation needed]

Perhaps appropriate for a song named for a mondegreen, "Edge of Seventeen" has been cited frequently as a source of misheard lyrics since its release. The line "Just like a white-winged dove" is sometimes misheard as "Just like a one-winged dove", "just like the one we know," "just like the world we know", "just like the wild wind does sings a song", or "just like the ones we love".[7][8][9][10][11] The song was used in the movie School of Rock as the hilarious favorite song of the female principle of a high school, since the song is commonly interpreted to be about an older woman falling for an underage teen boy. [12]

Chart positions Chart (1981-1982)	Peak position Canadian RPM Top Singles[13]	11 U.S. Billboard Hot 100	11 U.S. Billboard Top Rock Tracks	4