Age Is Just a Number Top Ten: Sweet Little Sixteen (#9)

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After taking the day off to celebrate the joys of my faith, I’m back to enjoy a more secular celebration: my birthday. So it’s back to the list of songs that have a specific age mentioned in the title. Here’s another one that I’m pretty sure everyone saw coming. #9: Sweet Little Sixteen - Chuck Berry Rock and roll’s daddy! And hey, doesn’t this sound exactly like the Beach Boys’ “Surfing USA”? Well, there’s a reason for that. Brian Wilson (and, as he later claimed, Mike Love) just took “Sweet Little Sixteen” and put surfing hotspots in place of the music hotspots. “Surfing USA” is credited with Chuck Berry as the co-writer. I remember a few years ago that someone here mentioned how “dirty” it sounds to have all these songs about 16-year-olds. If you listen to this song now the protagonist sounds almost like a groupie (or worse). But you have to remember something about the early days of rock and roll: it was for teenagers. It was a considered a fad for the kids, something they’d outgrow when they turned 18. So if you’re looking for something sinister in this song, it isn’t there. You’ll have to go to Berry’s only #1 hit in 1972 for that. Sweet Little Sixteen Written by Chuck Berry Recorded by Chuck Berry From A Dozen Berrys, 1958 It’s such a sight to see somebody steal the show: