Between the Lines

BETWEEN THE LINES
 
 
Between the Lines,  released in 1975 and containing the popular song “At Seventeen”, is the best-known album by the then New York-based singer-songwriter Janis Ian.  The album reached #1 on the Billboard album chart in September 1975, and sold 1.9 million copies in the United States.  “At Seventeen” was released as a single and reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.  Ian won the 1975 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the song, and performed it on the first episode of Saturday Night Live on October 11, 1975.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

Janis Ian might have remained a most remarkable one-hit wonder had she not taken up other controversial issues – as related by Wikipedia, “adolescent cruelty, the illusion of popularity, and teenage angst” – with her biggest hit song “At Seventeen” (1975).  The song and the accompanying album, Between the Lines both reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary Singles and Hot 100 Albums Billboard charts, respectively, with much less drama than had befallen “Society’s Child”.  What's more, Janis Ian won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance – Female that year, beating out Linda Ronstadt (whose breakthrough album Heart Like a Wheel had been nominated), as well as Olivia Newton-John and Helen Reddy. 

 

(January 2014)