Nine Songs Reflecting My Teenage Angst

The definition of angst is: “feelings of fear, anxiety, apprehension or insecurity.” At no time in our life do we feel angst perhaps as much as when we were teenagers. Oh, how I remember when I would play a song that “got me” over-and-over while I wallowed in my angst, as a teen! Below are the songs I remember that expressed my teen angst the most:

1) “You’re No Good”—I can’t count how many times I belted out this song after being betrayed or jilted by someone I had trusted with my fragile heart and had caused me such teenage angst. It motivated me to put them in my rear-view mirror, and get on with my life; realizing I was much better off without them. There comes a point when a teen realizes someone they cared about was simply “no good.”

The version of “You’re No Good” that I was most familiar with was by Linda Ronstadt, in 1975.

2) “If You Leave Me Now”—Speaking of breakups, there were several songs that would speak to the heart of my teen angst when I was in fear that someone I truly cared about, might break up with me. If they did, they would take away the best part of me. This was one of those songs. How heartbreaking it was to sing out, “Baby, please don’t go!"

“If You Leave Me Now” was recorded by Chicago in 1976. The instrumentals in bands like Chicago touched my soul as much as the lyrics did!

3) “Superstar”—There’s nothing worse than unrequited love. At first, Bobby Sherman’s 1970 “Julie, Do Ya Love Me” left me “tossin' and turnin' and freezin' and burnin’ and cryin' all through the night” in my teenage angst. But, the Carpenters’ 1971 “Superstar” cut me to the core. “Don’t you remember you told me you loved me, Baby?”

4) “Go Your Own Your Way”—Sooner or later, we were all singing along to this chorus. You see, after much teenage angst, there came a point when we realized the person we love is gonna go their own way, it’s a lost cause. Fleetwood Mac put it into words we could all relate to, when they released “Go Your Own Way” back in 1976.

5) “Maggie May”—There was an age when we couldn’t help being attracted by someone much too old for us. Thankfully, I never acted on such feelings of angst. The song “Maggie May” recorded by Rod Stewart in 1971, was a powerful lesson of regret from someone who did follow his improper desires, and paid the consequences. Boy, was that song ever popular!

6) “Last Kiss”—When you’re a kid, even though your parents are constantly telling you to be careful, you never really think anything will happen to you. Teenagers, especially, have a feeling of invulnerability. Thus, when I heard “Last Kiss” and realized we could actually really die, it scared me because it was based on a real car crash. The boys I dated and all the teens I knew, including myself, were terrible drivers. It wasn’t long before I began to lose friends in death. First, a boy who came by my house to show me the new motorcycle his Dad had given him to make up for announcing he was divorcing his Mom. He gave me a ride and afterward, we talked about how he’d rather have his parents get along and stay together, instead of this stupid motorcycle. The following weekend, he died when he crashed it. The entire school was let out to attend the funeral. Talk about angst!

Several years later, I would often double-date with my boyfriend’s best friend and his girl. When my boyfriend called me up one night to tell me either his best friend or his brother was dead, at first I told him not to joke about such things. But, he explained that because he wasn’t home when his friend stopped by, his little brother jumped into his car, instead. (Coincidentally, both his friend and his little brother had the same first name.) The police had come to my boyfriend’s house and told his family that there had been a terrible accident, and one of the boys was dead, and the other was taken to the hospital. But, the family didn’t know which one had died! You can imagine that nail-biting drive to the hospital... My boyfriend was in agony, not wanting either of them to be gone. (Meanwhile, I was silently in such angst, feeling guilty that I was relieved that my boyfriend hadn’t been home, or perhaps he would have been in the accident.) It turned out that his best friend was the one who didn’t survive; while his little brother was just injured. The family didn’t feel like they could express their relief, because his best friend’s parents were also there, and absolutely devastated by the news. (They had lost an older son just two years prior, and couldn’t bear to lose another child.) It was really strange dating without his best friend along, and to this day, decades later, my boyfriend (who eventually became my husband) misses him.

“Last Kiss” was written in 1961 by Wayne Cochran about two real-life 16 year-olds who were on a date when their car hit a tractor-trailer in rural Barnesville, Georgia. A local gas station attendant helping with the recovery of the bodies, tragically did not recognize his own daughter, when he was helping to pull the bodies out of the wreckage! I grew up listening to the 1964 version by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers; but this 1999 version by Pearl Jam (see video) revived the song with a slower beat. At the same time, it revived my angst about our vulnerability, all over again.

A similar song that made me realize how fragile life was when I was a teen, was “Ebony Eyes”, recorded in 1961 by two real-life marines, the Everly Brothers. It was about when a soldier was on leave waiting for the airplane flight of his beloved bride-to-be when he received devastating word that her plane had crashed. It made all of us say “Semper Fidelis” or “Semper Fi”, which means “Always faithful.” Another one was the 1959 “Teen Angel” performed by Mark Dinning and Alex Murray. Apparently, there were many teens who were having angst over worries about losing loved ones in death!

7) “Running Bear”—This was the Native American version of the Romeo and Juliet account, put to music. There were times times when parents objected to someone we teens thought we were in love with (usually for good reason); yet we felt like doing anything in order to be with them. Parents interfering in our love-life caused such anxiety to us teens! Coming from a Cherokee background through one of my family lines, I really related to this song as a teen, despite all the clichés I had to overlook (such as the war cries and the chanting of “uga-uga”).

“Running Bear” was recorded by Johnny Preston in 1959, but it was still being played by bands in dances I went to, as late as in the 70s.

8) “Leader of the Pack”—Speaking of star-crossed lovers, one thing that commonly caused teenage angst was when family, friends, and society in general disapproved if you fell for someone they considered to be “from the wrong side of the track.” In my most serious relationship, I was the one whom my boyfriend’s father felt wasn’t good enough, having come from a poor family, while they were more well-to-do. He tried to encourage my boyfriend to date another girl from a very rich family—and he tried one date to get his father off his back, but it was me that he loved—and ultimately married. Several years later, I once sang “Leader of the Pack" at a Karaoke night, while my husband rode a Big Wheel toy onto the stage during the “Vroom Vroom” parts; and he wrecked it onto its side during the crash sounds. The audience thought it was a riot, and we had great fun performing it.

We ended up having two wonderful children—a boy and a girl who have lovely families of their own now, and have made us proud. There were times when they were in the dating years that I had different preferences and wishes for them, but remembering the awful angst and shame my father-in-law had caused me, I always remembered to bite my tongue—and now, I’m so happy I did.

“Leader of the Pack” was recorded in 1964 by The Shangri-Las. It’s about a girl named Betty, who is in despair because of her parents’ disapproval of the leader of a motorcycle gang, with whom she has fallen in love. Perhaps a song that better described the angst my father-in-law caused to me, making me feel unworthy just because of my finances—or lack thereof, was the heartbreaking 1962 “Patches” by Dickie Lee.

9) “There Is Something On Your Mind (Part 2)”—This song absolutely petrified me! After the girl he liked left him for another guy, lyrics like: “You go down to the pawn shop and get yourself a pistol” made girls of my era scared to break up with a guy, for fear of what he’d do! How did the powers-that-be ever allow the violence and murder to be portrayed in the second half of this song? I suppose with the violent rap songs that teens don’t blink at nowadays, it would be hard to understand how shocking and troubling this song was to me, back in the day.

“There Is Something On Your Mind” was originally recorded in 1957 by Big Jay McNeely; but it was this Part 2 version recorded by Bobby Marchan in 1960, that caused me such angst.

I think I’ll stop there, because remembering my teenage angst is starting to give me anxiety all over again, ha ha. How easy it is to forget how hard it is for teenagers, with all the wild range of emotions that hit their heart like a hammer! We tend to forget the heartache when we’re reminiscing about the “good ol’ days”. For any teens who are reading this, rest assured it DOES get better!