{"id":69312,"date":"2026-07-27T14:39:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/27\/how-stevie-nicks-survived-heartache-with-edge-of-seventeen\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T14:39:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:39:32","slug":"how-stevie-nicks-survived-heartache-with-edge-of-seventeen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/27\/how-stevie-nicks-survived-heartache-with-edge-of-seventeen\/","title":{"rendered":"How Stevie Nicks Survived Heartache With \u2018Edge of Seventeen’"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Stevie Nicks<\/a> already had a dream career in motion with Fleetwood Mac<\/a>. That much is true, just looking at the mammoth worldwide success they enjoyed with 1977’s blockbuster Rumours<\/a> album alone.<\/em><\/p>\n

But the singer would eventually grow restless and feel somewhat creatively limited within the confines of the group, which is not surprising, since Fleetwood Mac featured numerous songwriters inside its ranks. Nicks found more and more that she had a growing amount of unreleased material in need of a home. <\/em><\/p>\n

Taking the chance to embark on a solo career seemed like the natural route to take, no matter how much risk there might be. But how well would she fare outside of the Fleetwood Mac mothership? Would it cause conflict? 1981’s Bella Donna<\/a> arrived on July 27, 1981 and provided a definitive confirmation that there was room for both. In fact, it opened up a whole new world creatively for Nicks<\/a>, a path she continues to travel to this day.<\/em><\/p>\n

New York Times bestselling author Annie Zaleski<\/a> (who has also written for UCR) takes stock of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/a> legend’s entire career with her book, <\/em>Stevie Nicks in 50 Songs<\/a>. It offers a comprehensive and heavily researched look at her work with the Mac, Buckingham Nicks, plus her extensive solo work and collaborations along the way. <\/em><\/p>\n

In an exclusive excerpt that you can read below, we learn the interesting backstory behind one of her most enduring solo hits, <\/em>Bella Donna’s “Edge of Seventeen.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Although Stevie Nicks wrote many of her songs about specific moments or times in her life, others are more like a photo scrapbook of memories. That\u2019s certainly the case with her pop and rock radio hit \u201cEdge of Seventeen,\u201d a galvanizing song with impressionistic lyrics and imagery drawn from multiple strands of her life which became a massive hit in 1982. For example, the immortal white-winged dove mentioned in the song came to Nicks in a rather pedestrian way: a menu she received while on an airplane mentioned the bird being protected by a saguaro cactus. As \u201cEdge of Seventeen\u201d evolved, the dove came to symbolize multiple people in her orbit who had died or were sick when she wrote the song.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a period of time that I just didn\u2019t know what to do, so I just sat down and wrote about it,\u201d she said in a 1981 WLIR radio interview. \u201cI spent a lot of time thinking about how I would write this song.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEdge of Seventeen\u201d started coalescing in 1980, when she was living with her then-boyfriend, producer Jimmy Iovine<\/a>. He was wrapping up<\/a> a Tom Petty<\/a> album and she was getting restless being at home. \u201cI was starting to get very edgy to do something,\u201d she said in the Timespace<\/a><\/em> liner notes. \u201cI was also starting to feel very unimportant and very sorry for myself. I was ready to begin Bella Donna<\/em>, and it seemed like it would just never happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around this time, John Lennon<\/a> was shot and killed. Iovine was devastated, as he and Lennon had this \u201cincredible friendship,\u201d Nicks recalled in the same liner notes. \u201cJohn had taken Jimmy in and taught him to record. He was his teacher.\u201d Less than two months later, Nicks\u2019s uncle Jonathan became very ill with colon cancer; she saw him the day before he died. \u201cHe was home, and my aunt had some music softly playing, and it was a perfect place for the spirit to go away,\u201d she told Rolling Stone<\/em> in 1981. \u201cThe \u2018white-winged dove\u2019 in the song is a spirit that is leaving a body, and I felt a great loss at how both Johns were taken.\u201d Sadly, Nicks then also later came to associate \u201cEdge of Seventeen\u201d with her dear friend Robin Anderson, who became sick as Bella Donna<\/em> became a success.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the song\u2019s title, which came about after Nicks asked Tom Petty\u2019s first wife, Jane, when the couple met. \u201cShe said, \u2018I met him at some point during the age of 17,\u2019\u201d Nicks told Billboard<\/em>. \u201cBut I thought she said, \u2018The edge of 17.\u2019 I said, \u2018Jane, can I use that? Can I write a song called \u201cEdge of Seventeen\u201d?\u2019\u201d Consequently, at least some of the song was \u201cJane talking about Tom,\u201d Nicks added. \u201cI bet a lot of people thought I was talking about me, but I was chronicling their relationship as she told it to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Hear 10 Songs Stevie Nicks Left Off of ‘Bella Donna’<\/a><\/p>\n

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Atco<\/figcaption>Stevie Nicks – Bella Donna<\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Given this backdrop, \u201cEdge of Seventeen\u201d is emotionally cathartic\u2014a feeling captured by the music, which is highlighted by glassy piano from Roy Bittan<\/a>, jagged electric guitars from Waddy Wachtel, and a cascading chorus of harmonies from Nicks and her backup singers Sharon Celani and Lori Perry. Nicks herself sounds like a fire-and-brimstone preacher howling through her grief and love.<\/p>\n

The song was also a blast to record, Nicks said. \u201cRecording it was the most exciting thing I\u2019ve ever done, because everybody felt that there was an electrical charge going through this white-winged dove all the way through that song,\u201d Nicks told WLIR in 1981. \u201cAnd for the three days that we worked on recording the track of it, and we had the lady singers and myself and all 10 of the guys out in one room recording.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years later, however, Wachtel admitted that his inimitable guitar part throughout the song was uncomfortably close to the Police\u2019s<\/a> 1979 song \u201cBring On the Night<\/a>\u201d\u2014and it apparently wasn\u2019t exactly an accident. \u201cAt that session they told me they were going to do this song based on this feel,\u201d he told Musician<\/em> in 1999. \u201cI heard something about the Police, but I didn\u2019t know what they were talking about. Then about two years ago, I had the radio on, and on comes what sounds like \u201cEdge of Seventeen\u201d\u2014and all of a sudden, there\u2019s Sting\u2019s<\/a> voice! I thought, \u2018We ripped them off completely!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch Stevie Nicks’ ‘Edge of Seventeen’ Video<\/h3>\n

Excerpted from <\/em>Stevie Nicks in 50 Songs<\/a> by Annie Zaleski. Copyright \u00a9 2026. Available from Running Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Fleetwood Mac Solo Albums Ranked <\/h2>\n
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There have been more than 45 of these outside projects, which deepen and add to the band’s legacy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n