A 1981 Stevie Nicks single built on a sixteenth-note guitar figure by Waddy Wachtel, written about the deaths of John Lennon and Nicks's uncle.
Composition
Edge of Seventeen was written by Stevie Nicks after she misheard the phrase “age of seventeen” from a fan in conversation with Tom Petty’s wife. The song was completed soon after the deaths of John Lennon and Nicks’s uncle within the same week.
Recording
The recording features a sixteenth-note guitar figure played by Waddy Wachtel, which became the song’s defining hook. The arrangement is driven by a single chord progression sustained throughout the track.
Legacy
Edge of Seventeen has been widely sampled, most notably by Destiny’s Child on the 2001 single “Bootylicious.” It remains one of Stevie Nicks’s most recognized solo recordings outside her Fleetwood Mac catalog.