There’s no doubt that “Edge of Seventeen” is one of Stevie Nicks’ signature songs. The track from the 1981 album Bella Donna introduced the world to Nicks outside of the shadow of Fleetwood Mac.
“Edge of Seventeen” was solo Stevie—and it became one of the most unforgettable songs of her career.
The song, which peaked at No. 11 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in April 1982, featured a sharp, staccato guitar riff played by session veteran Waddy Wachtel, providing a haunting backdrop to Nicks’ lyrics about grief, loss and resilience inspired by the deaths of John Lennon and one of her favorite uncles.
But even Wachtel didn’t realize how close the riff sounded to another artist’s classic song.
In a 1999 interview with Musician, Wachtel revealed that the music for “Edge of Seventeen” was inspired by the 1979 Police classic “Bring on the Night,” from the band’s Reggatta De Blanc album.
“I had never heard ‘Bring On the Night’, and at that session, they told me they were going to do this song based on this feel,” Wachtel recalled. “I had heard something about the Police, but I didn’t know what they were talking about.”
After recording “Edge of Seventeen,” Wachtel heard what he thought was Nicks’ song on the radio.
“I had the radio on, and on comes what sounds like ‘Edge of Seventeen’ – and all of a sudden, there’s Sting’s voice!” the guitarist said. “I thought, ‘We ripped them off completely!’ I called Stevie that night and said, ‘Listen to me: Don’t ever do that again!’”
Wachtel later told Guitar Player magazine that Nicks had been greatly inspired by the “echo-driven guitar track that [The Police guitarist] Andy Summers played on the 1979 classic,
“That rolling and repeating kind of sound,” he said. “It was very intense and dramatic.”
As for Summers, he always knew the opening to “Bring on the Night” was special.
“I liked the atmosphere of the song,” he told Guitar Player in 2022. “I put in that muted opening part before the main verse section. …It wasn’t standard rock at all.”
The Police never took issue with Nicks’ inspiration from “Bring on the Night,” and her song ultimately became a rock radio classic.
Wachtel noted that “Edge of Seventeen” also became the longest song in Nicks’ concert set, sometimes going as long as 12 minutes live thanks to that echoing riff.
“Onstage, the beginning of that song is like a break for Stevie,” he told Musician. “I’d be standing there, playing that riff for around three minutes, before she’d even start singing!”
Forty-five years after it was recorded, “Edge of Seventeen” remains one of Nicks’ greatest solo songs— and one that has always been marked by an incredible energy.
“When we recorded the song, the energy that was written into that song was so intense,” the Fleetwood Mac legend once told Vox magazine. “It was like there was this energy that was so strong. And it was quite incredible to see, especially that entity of the band that played on that song. And they just put every bit of their heart and soul into it.”
Related: 1981 Classic, Ranked Among ‘Greatest Rock Duets of All Time,’ Became the Biggest Hit Ever for Both Artists
