Hey Nineteen
| "Hey Nineteen" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by Steely Dan | ||||
| from the album Gaucho | ||||
| B-side | Bodhisattva (live) | |||
| Released | 1980 | |||
| Genre | Jazz fusion | |||
| Length | 5:10 | |||
| Label | MCA Records | |||
| Writer(s) | Walter Becker, Donald Fagen | |||
| Producer | Gary Katz | |||
| Steely Dan singles chronology | ||||
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"Hey Nineteen" is a song by American jazz rock band Steely Dan, written by members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, and released on their 1980 album Gaucho.
Contents |
[edit] Story
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This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2010) |
According to one reviewer's interpretation, the song "was about a middle-aged man's disappointment with a young lover ("Hey Nineteen, that's 'Retha Franklin / She don't remember the Queen of Soul / It's hard times befallen the sole survivors / She thinks I'm crazy but I'm just growing old")."[1] Other reviews felt that the song struck a nerve with the aging baby boomer generation transition from the freewheeling 1960s and 1970s to the conservative 1980s. In a story related to Australian journalist Josh Robertson in 2010 by Berklee College of Music professor Stephen Webber, Webber's friend (and Gaucho mix engineer) Elliot Scheiner had complained during the making of the album of his date with a much younger woman who did not know who the singer Aretha Franklin was.
[edit] Charts
"Hey Nineteen" peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (higher than any other Gaucho track), and #68 on the Black Singles chart.[2]
[edit] Alternate versions
Beginning with their 1993-1994 performances, as documented in the Alive in America release, the phrase "Hey Nineteen/That's Aretha Franklin/She don't remember/Queen of Soul" was replaced with "Hey Nineteen/That's Otis Redding/She don't remember/King of Soul." While singing the song in the Two Against Nature tour of 2000, Fagen often left the name attribution blank for the singing-along audiences to fill in, and when most of them sang "Aretha Franklin," he corrected them by saying, "No, that's Otis Redding." In the 2007 Heavy Rollers tour, Fagen has reverted to the Aretha Franklin reference, presumably for comic effect, since the veteran fans have by now been trained to shout, "Otis Redding."
[edit] Notes
- ^ Layman, Will. Jazz Today: The Strange, Mixed Fate of Steely Dan (April 10, 2006). Accessed July 31, 2006.
- ^ Allmusic. (((Gaucho > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles))). Accessed July 31, 2006.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- "Hey Nineteen" lyrics at SteelyDan.com
