"Seventeen" is a single by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band Winger from their debut album ''Winger''. Released in 1989, the song charted at No. 26 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The song was named the 87th best hard rock song of all time by

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

. The

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

for this single was the album cut "Poison Angel".

Background

According to

Kip Winger Charles Frederick "Kip" Winger (born June 21, 1961) is an American singer and bassist who is active as a member of the rock band Winger (band), Winger and as a solo artist. He initially gained notability as a member of Alice Cooper's band, contr ...

, he took inspiration from the

Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

song " I Saw Her Standing There", which contains the lyric, "Well she was just seventeen / If you know what I mean / And the way she looked / Was way beyond compare" and was not aware that age Seventeen is

underage In law, a minor is someone under a certain age, usually the age of majority, which demarcates an underage individual from legal adulthood. The age of majority depends upon jurisdiction and application, but it is commonly 18. ''Minor'' may also ...

in some jurisdictions. Winger said guitarist

Reb Beach Richard Earl "Reb" Beach Jr. (born August 31, 1963) is an American rock guitarist. He is a member of the bands Winger and Whitesnake. Career After graduating from Fox Chapel Area High School and attending Berklee College of Music in the ea ...

wrote the main riff when he was about 15, but was unsure how to use it. However, Winger had an idea, and wove it into the song. He said they were trying to rip off a Led Zeppelin song with "weird

syncopation In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat (music), off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of ...

" on the verse, though he cannot remember which song it was anymore — probably "

The Crunge "The Crunge" is a song by the English rock music, rock band Led Zeppelin from their 1973 album ''Houses of the Holy''. The song is a takeoff on James Brown's style of funk similar to the group's attempt at reggae with "D'yer Mak'er". It was also r ...

" or " Walter's Walk". He also stated, "The thing I like about 'Seventeen' is that time and time again I've seen cover bands try to play it and there's no one I've ever seen be able to play that riff correctly. That song is very deceiving because it's cocky on the melody end and it's musically a difficult song for average bands to play, because it's all this intricate picking and a lot of riffs and syncopations and singing and playing that song has always been a challenge."

Track listing

;7" and cassette single ;Canadian 7" single ;CD single

Charts

References

Songs about teenagers Winger (band) songs 1988 songs Song recordings produced by Beau Hill Songs written by Kip Winger Songs written by Beau Hill 1989 singles Atlantic Records singles Songs written by Reb Beach {{metal-song-stub

Background

Track listing

Charts

See also

References