As we move through the numbers from 11-19, it is inevitable that there would be a cluster of songs around the number 16. Sixteen being the magical age of consent, and when people can get married at least in the Western world. I sadly suspect that the majority of the songs will be taken from the male point of view. So let’s see what the song writers make of this number.
“When You Were Sweet Sixteen” is a song, written by James Thornton and published in 1898. Inspired and sung by the composer’s wife, the ballad quickly became a hit song in vaudeville. It has a long recording history that includes numerous popular singers, has been heard on film, and is considered a standard for barbershop quartets. “When You Were Sweet Sixteen” sold over a million copies of sheet music. The Fureys with Davey Arthur, took it to number 14 in the UK in October 1981.
“Sixteen Tons” is a song written by Merle Travis about a coal miner, based on life in mines in Kentucky. It was first released in July 1947 on Travis’s album Folk SOngs of the Hills. The song became a gold record. The line “You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt” came from a letter written by Travis’s brother John. Another line came from their father, a coal miner, who would say: “I can’t afford to die. I owe my soul to the company store.” A 1955 version recorded by Tennessee Ernie Ford reached number one in the Billboard charts, while another version, by Frankie Laine in 1956, was released only in Western Europe, where it gave Ford’s version competition.
“Sweet Little Sixteen” is a song written and first recorded by ChucK Berry, who released it as a single in January 1958. It reached number two on the Billboard, one of two of Berry’s second-highest positions. “Sweet Little Sixteen” also reached number one on the R&B Best Sellers chart. In the UK, it reached number 16. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song number 272 on its list of the “500 Greatest Hits of All Time” in 2004. He used the same melody on an earlier song, “The Little Girl From Central” recorded on Checkmate in 1955.
“Sixteen Going on Seventeen” is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. The lyrics of the song state that you are a young girl at the beginning of her womanhood, and that she can depend on Rolf for guidance, because he is a good year older. Since the comparative maturity of the two characters in the story is the opposite of that expressed in the song, this is an example of lyrical irony.
“You’re Sixteen” is a song written by the Sherman Brothers. It was first performed by American rockabilly singer Johnny Burnette, whose version peaked at number eight on the US Billboard in December 1960 and number 3 in the UK in 1961. Ringo Starr’s version was released as a single in the United States in December 1973, and in the UK in February 1974. In January 1974, the song, taken from the album Ringo, hit number one on the Billboard. The latter performance reunited Ringo Starr with bandmate Paul McCartney. Although McCartney is credited on the liner notes of the album Ringo as having played the solo on a kazoo.
“Sixteen” is a song by English singer Ellie Goulding, released as a single in April 2019 as a bonus track from the international digital edition of her fourth studio album Brightest Blue. It was co-written by Goulding with Raye and Fred, and produced by Ian Kirkpatrick, Fred and Mike Wise. Goulding has said the song is about the “reckless days of adolescence”.
