You can't always be seventeen

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Chris Roberts - You can't always be seventeen

You Can't Always Be Seventeen is a song by pop singer Chris Roberts from 1974. The lyrics are by Kurt Hertha . Ralph Siegel composed the music and produced the hit. Among other things, it became a top 10 success and was number one in the ZDF hit parade .

Text and music

You Can't Always Be Seventeen is a love song in G major and 4/4 time in which the protagonist promises his beloved to stay with her for life and to grant her all wishes. The refrain contrasts the current youthfulness of 17 years with the age of 70. The song begins - which is relatively unusual - with the chorus:

Chris Roberts (1976)

"You can't always be seventeen
darling, you can't
but life will still give
you what it promises you at seventeen
Once there you'll be seventy
Then I'm still with you
Because you will always be, always loved by me"

The stanzas themselves deal with the current life of the sung about and describe their preferences, but also name the transience. She loves “music and guitar sound” and lives “from laughing and dancing [...] all the years”, but at the same time “time goes by so quickly. And then there are completely different things for the two of us. ”Her beauty also changes over the years. The singer asks her to look in the mirror to see how beautiful she is and promises:

"You are still beautiful in the years when there is silver in your hair"

In the last stanza the refrain is mixed with the stanza text and integrated into it. It contains the renewed promise that the person addressed will be loved by the singer for her whole life:

"Because you will always, always be loved by me
Yes, you will always, always be loved by me"

Because the majority did not come of age until the age of 21, the number 17 was considered the epitome of childhood love. Numerous titles from the 1960s dealt with 17-year-old women, around 17 you still have dreams ( Peggy March ) or 17 years old , blond hair ( Udo Jürgens ). Even English titles such as Save the Last Dance for Me ( Drifters ), in which age did not play a role, were trimmed to 17 in the German cover version : life only begins at 17 ( Ivo Robić ). You Can't Always Be Seventeen was one of the last successes on this subject in 1974.

Publication and response

Background and publication

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
You can't always be seventeen (Chris Roberts)
  DE 3 02/25/1974 (28 weeks)
  AT 10 04/15/1974 (16 weeks)

Roberts had his first chart success in 1968 under the name Chris Robert with the hit If you are lonely , which rose to number 15 in the German single charts . Further chart successes followed by 1972, such as Die Maschen der Mädchen , I am in love with love , I already told you today that I love you and I have sun in my heart . In 1973 he changed his record company and went to Jupiter Records , where he worked with Ralph Siegel and Kurt Hertha, who wrote You Can't Always Be Seventeen for him . The single reached number three in the single charts in Germany and stayed in the top 10 for twelve weeks and in the hit parade for 28 weeks. In Austria the single reached position ten and stayed in the charts for one month and four months. It became Robert's 14th chart success in Germany as well as after I'm in love with love and my darling you are a stunner! for the third in Austria. You can't always be seventeen became the seventh top 10 success for Roberts in the German single charts and the first in Austria. In Germany, no single by Roberts was able to stay in the charts for longer, and no single achieved a better ranking. The singles I'm in love with love and I already told you today that I love you also reached third place. In Austria, no single from Roberts could place longer or higher in the single charts.

The song was released on Jupiter Records as a single in Germany and Austria, on the B-side the song Ein Sonntag im Englischer Garten was recorded:

  1. You can't always be seventeen - 3:35
  2. A Sunday in the English Garden - 2:32 am

On March 23, 1974, the song was presented as a new song in the ZDF hit parade with Dieter-Thomas Heck , in the following two months it was in first place on the hit parade, in front of Spain's guitars by Cindy & Bert . In the same year, the album of the same name, You Can't Always Be Seventeen, was released with 12 songs, which was also produced by Ralph Siegel.

resonance

After its release, the single rose to number three in the German single charts and stayed in the hit parade for 28 weeks. You can't always be seventeen , thus joining the singer's famous love songs that made his success. On the occasion of his death in 2017 at the age of 73, Jonas Erik-Schmidt wrote: “Chris Roberts was the definition of a crush long before the name Justin Bieber had any meaning. That was also because his songs were almost always about love and longing and never about politics. ”The song became the most successful and well-known song by Chris Roberts, but it was also his last hit in the top ten and despite numerous other publications up until the early 1980s, he could no longer build on these successes. Erik-Schmidt wrote about this: “Musically things became increasingly quiet around him after the golden 1970s. The zeitgeist changed, in the 1980s came the Neue Deutsche Welle, which had little to do with slow-paced Schmalz hits. [...] Your completely apolitical music was considered extremely conservative there. Even in Roberts' filmography there are only sporadic entries at some point. In 1983 he played Sunshine Reggae in Ibiza , which featured Karl Dall and all kinds of bare-breasted women. "

The song was published on numerous Schlager compilations due to its success and popularity.

Cover versions

You Can't Always Be Seventeen was republished or covered as a hit, especially by other pop singers. It plays a role especially as a party hit for several hit covers. Chris Roberts himself covered his hit in 2007 together with his then wife Claudia Roberts as a party version and again in 2012.

The bands and performers who released the song in a cover version include: u. a.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e Chris Roberts - You can't always be seventeen. officialcharts.de, accessed on July 14, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Chris Roberts - You can't always be seventeen. hitparade.at, accessed on July 14, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Chris Roberts - You Can't Always Be Seventeen (Single) at Discogs ; accessed on July 14, 2020.
  4. ↑ 4711072 Chris Roberts - You Can't Always Be Seventeen (album) at Discogs ; accessed on July 14, 2020.
  5. ↑ a b Jonas Erik-Schmidt: "Once, you will be 70 ..." volksfreund.de, July 4, 2017; accessed on July 14, 2020.
  6. ↑ Chris Roberts - You can't always be seventeen. hitparade.ch, accessed on July 14, 2020 .

Web links