22 December 2023

"You're Sixteen" (1960 and 1974)

"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 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in December 1960 and number 3 in the U.K. in 1961. The original 1960 version of "You're Sixteen" by Johnny Burnette is featured prominently on the 1973 motion picture soundtrack of the film American Graffiti.
In January 1974, a cover version by British musician Ringo Starr, taken from the album Ringo, hit number one. The latter performance reunited Ringo Starr with his former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney. McCartney is credited on the liner notes of the album Ringo as having played the solo on a kazoo. But reviewer Michael Verity has quoted the song's producer, Richard Perry, as revealing it wasn't actually a kazoo. “In fact, the solo on ‘You’re Sixteen,’ which sounds like a kazoo or something, was Paul singing very spontaneously as we played that track back, so he’s singing the solo on that.” In any case, Starr's version remains one of the few #1 singles to feature a 'kazoo-sound' solo. Harry Nilsson sang backing vocals on Starr's version. The 1978 video of Starr's version features Carrie Fisher as Starr's love interest.

Reposted from 2013 because today is TYWKIWDBI's sixteenth blogiversary.  In previous years I used to write long posts on the blogiversary, analysing viewership, number of followers, or noting trends in the blogosphere, mostly out of amazement that I was still doing this.  Today I'll just note that this is the 18,561st post, and there have been 65,800 comments that I haven't deleted.  Now I'll just move on, write a couple more posts to clean out recent bookmarks, and then take a blogcation for some holiday mental health break time.

4 comments:

  1. In junior high my friends and I got together and threw a sweet 16th birthday for our teacher on her birthday (she was in her mid-40s). I don't remember where we got the idea, but we played this song as she entered the classroom in the morning. One of my favorite memories, and she's mentioned it's one of her favorites.

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  2. Sixteenth Blogversary? Congratulation.

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    Replies
    1. The Crests - 16 Candles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoOuTSBAWWA

      Neil Sedaka "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h2zp96Hzhg

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  3. Congratulations on 16 years! Looking forward to another 16.

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