Songfacts®:

• In this song, Eurythmics lead singer Annie Lennox feels like she's 17 again, but not in a good way. She sees that the world has changed and is trying to make sense of it all, just as she did in her teenage years. With an orchestral backing, the song has a melancholy that shows up on a lot of Eurythmics tracks and that suits Lennox well. She has cited it as one of her favorites.
• "17 Again" was the second single (following "I Saved The World Today") from Peace, the album that brought the Eurythmics - Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox - together after nearly 10 years apart. They have a very long history together, starting the '70s when they were in a band called The Tourists and were a couple. They didn't pan out romantically, but found they could still make beautiful music together, which they did spectacularly throughout the '80s with Eurythmics. By the time they made Peace, they were both parents, but their children were old enough that they felt comfortable going on tour once again. The album ended up being the last from the duo.
• The music video takes place with Stewart and Lennox on stage with an orchestra. As they play, bombs go off and the musicians are gunned down as they're playing. It's all done in surreal slow motion as war overtakes the music.
  
  As he often did, Dave Stewart directed the video. They planned to collaborate with the photographer Richard Avedon, but that didn't work out so they went in another direction, using the same orchestra and actors for both the "17 Again" and "I Saved The World Today" videos.
• At the end of the song, Eurythmics reprise "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)," their first hit. This brings them full circle, and the line "Everybody's looking for something" fits right in with the theme of "17 Again."
• Before the hits and the fame, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart were a couple, and their breakup made the early days of the band emotionally intense.
  
  "The song '17 Again,' where the line goes, 'Who could not be together, and who could not be apart,' it's really a reference to me and Dave," Lennox told Best magazine. "We could not be together as a couple, but we could not be apart musically."