Songs About Being 16 Years Old

Sixteen was a great age.  For me, I had a job and was discovering great music.  I didn't have a girlfriend, and that meant I could devote my money and time to buying albums.  On my 16th birthday, my sister drove me to the local record shop. She wanted to get me a birthday gift, so she said that I could buy any album in the store.  I chose the Buzzcocks album Love Bites.  It was an import, but my sister was cool with extra cost.  Love Bites has a track titled Sixteen Again.  It was one of many great songs on that album.  I made sure to play it on my birthday, and went back to it many times that year.  The lyrics to that song were pretty much spot on.  It wasn't so much a song about what it was like to be sixteen, but more about what it felt like to go back and be that young again.  I didn't get it at the time, but the song rings true none the less.



I suppose that this Buzzcocks song about "looking back" has a common partner in the Sam Cooke song titled Only Sixteen.  Cook's song is a simple memory of a time when he rushed to give up his love freely, albeit only one year earlier in his life.  Cooke claims in the song that he has now aged another year, and learned his lesson.  Funny stuff. There are a number of songs about being sixteen, but these two are about reflecting.