This Outcast Ballad Was So Universally Relatable It Topped Charts In 1975

It's the favorite hymn of the outcast, and one that was a top-10 hit in 1975: Janis Ian's moody, mournful "At Seventeen" perfectly captures a certain kind of agony, the drawn-out ache of a wallflower at the time of life when beauty and vivacity are most prized. But even as Ian mournfully sings "The valentines I never knew," she also acknowledges that she doesn't have a monopoly on pain, reflecting on the difficult futures that may await people who peak early and glide into a constricting adulthood: "Remember those who win the game / Lose the love they sought to gain."

Bold enough to call herself an "ugly girl" (even if pictures of the young Ian don't bear out this self-assessment), Ian was able to ride the success of this song almost to the top of the charts. The song hit No. 3, and Ian was nominated for five Grammy awards for the track and its album "Between the Lines," a record for a female artist in one year that took Whitney Houston to beat. She took home the Grammy for best pop vocal performance for "At Seventeen," and the album won best engineered recording, non-classical.

Happily for fans who know Ian mostly through the lens of the wistful, longing "At Seventeen," Ian ultimately continued on to a successful career and rewarding life, even if it took her a while to get there. Outed in 1976, she struggled to find venues that would allow her to perform, ultimately marrying an abusive man and facing complex health and financial troubles that blighted the '80s for her. In the early '90s, she moved to Nashville, came out on her own terms, built a life with her female partner (now wife) Pat Snyder, and retrenched as a songwriter while continuing to record her own work.

Ian has released over twenty albums since "Between the Lines," most recently a live recording of a concert in Germany, as well as a rediscovered recording of herself in a duet with fellow icon Joan Baez. Ian has also been the subject of a recent documentary, "Janis Ian: Breaking Silence." One of Ian's albums was titled, aptly, "Janis Ian Shares Your Pain," but by 2021 she was able to offer her listeners "The Light at the End of the Line."