Or was this acceptable in the 60's?

[luckylucky24]

Today I came across this song by Neil Sedaka called "Happy birthday Sweet 16". It appears that he released a song at age 22 singing about a girl he has known for a while and has been watching and waiting for her to come of age. I find it quite uncomfortable. You couldn't release such a song nowadays so was this okay in the 60's? AIBU to be so uncomfortable with a song that probably hasn't had airtime for 50 years?
Here are the Lyrics
Tra la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Happy birthday, sweet sixteen
Tra la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Happy birthday, sweet sixteen
Tonight's the night I've waited for
Because you're not a baby anymore
You've turned into the prettiest girl I've ever seen
Happy birthday, sweet sixteen
What happened to that funny face
My little tomboy now wears satins and lace
I can't believe my eyes you're just a teenage dream
When you were only six, I was your big brother
Then when you were ten, we didn't like each other
When you were thirteen, you were my funny valentine
But since you've grown up, your future is sewn up
From now on you're gonna be mine, so
If I should smile with sweet surprise
It's just that you've grown up before my very eyes
You've turned into the prettiest girl I've ever seen
Happy birthday, sweet sixteen

I remember The Sun countdown to a 15 year old girl becoming 16, so The Sun could publish a topless photograph of her.

Gasp

Yes I remember the VERY young page 3 girls.

@noeffingidea he also liked having sex with u16 girls though.
I can't believe he wouldn't have noticed the lyrics at all, it's hardly opaque

I think the Sedaka one is creepy, always have.

The Gary Puckett one viewed in the context of the baby groupy scene of the late 60s and 70s- no. He is backing off because he knows it is wrong. As for the actions of the girl you clearly can't have seen the photos of Sable Starr or Lori Maddox at the "Riot House" on Sunset Strip.

Of course the men should have known better and behaved better but there isn't the slightest doubt those girls were looking for sex. They needed to be protected against themselves.

Both pale into insignificance compared with Roy Harper's Forbidden Fruit which I'm not going to link to as it is so bad.

I think the Sedaka one is creepy, always have.

I don't, especially as the market for pop singles at this time was almost exclusively teenaged and was written for them and their concerns. Sedaka was older, but was writing songs for teenagers, not adults and is sung from the perspective of a narrator who we are to assume was a similar age to the object of his desire.

Just like Ellie Grenwich who wrote the lyrics to 'Leader of the Pack' was a 24 year old married woman, not a heartbroken teen whose motorbike gang-leader of a boyfriend died in a tragic accident seconds after she told him it was over.

Back in the 60s this was played at every girl's 16th birthday party. No exceptions. It was seen as totally innocent. It's not the 60s that were creepy!

I think you are confusing it being acceptable and it having no sexual content. It was acceptable in the 60s but I cannot see how you can ignore the sexual overtones.

It doesn't really matter how old the narrator is other than he is older than her and is waiting for her to turn 16. So it is still rather lascivious even with just a few years gap.

How about "kissing in the back row" by the Drifters?
Your mama says that through the week
You can't go out with me
But when the weekend comes around
She knows where we will be

Kissin' in the back row
Of the movies on a Saturday night with you
Holdin' hands together, you and I
Holdin' hands together

Smoochin' in the back row
Of the movies on a Saturday night with you
We could stay forever, you and I
We could stay forever, you and I
Huggin' and a kissin' in the back row of the movies

Every night, I pick you up from school
Cause you're my steady date
But Monday to the Friday night
I leave you at the gate, yeah

You know, we can't have too much fun
'Til all your homework's done
But when the weekend comes
She knows where we will be, oh blah blah blah blah

Little Sister is another dodgy one

Well, I used to pull your pigtails
And pinch your turned-up nose
But you been a growin'
And, baby, it's been showin'
From your head down to your toes

I suppose it is- although I only know it from Ry Cooder's brilliant Bop Til You Drop album where the excellence of Cooder's musicianship is enough for me not to care.

The Sedaka song is just an irritating piece of disposable 60s trivia which I would be happy never to hear again.

On the subject of predatory musicians, if you want an example of unambivalent, unashamedly disgusting lyrics (actually written by the artist, thereby negating any 'excuse' of it being someone else's mindset):

From a tasteful number called "Jailbait"...(how cleverly subtle):
(Ted Nugent, 1981, at the age of 33)

"Well, I don't care if you're just 13 / You look too good to be true / I just know that you're probably clean."

"It's quite all right, I asked your mama / Wait a minute, officer / Don't put those handcuffs on me / Put them on her, and I'll share her with you."

Utterly vile man.

'...the lyrics are creepy, especially the part about asking a girl's parents for permission to "share" their daughter with a police officer in order to evade arrest. But what's even creepier is how those lyrics mirrored real life. Nugent couldn't legally marry 17-year-old Pele Massa in 1978, so he arranged with her parents to become her legal guardian. They would stay together for nine years, and Nugent would say that at the time he was "addicted to girls." '

-source The Phoenix New Times

Given Nugent's repellent views on most subjects, though, can't say I'm that surprised.

How about "kissing in the back row" by the Drifters?

I fail to see this as being anything but two high school students 'going steady' and necking in the back of a cinema.

One of my fave Drifters songs, nothing wrong with it.

To hark back to Teenage Kicks - I think it's one of the worst songs ever. I can't stand Feargal Sharkey's voice; all wobbly and weak.

I think many of the songs of the sixties are open to interpretation. They could be about being ready to date, being ready to get engaged, or being ready to shag. Unlike many songs of today which are completely transparent.

hotheadyou were still very much your father's property. I don't think so, at least not in the UK. That mmindset wasn't really a part of British culture.
My Mum was a young woman in the 60's, according to her a lot of teenagers were sexually active and teenager pregnancies were quite common, often under 16.
I was a teenager in the 70's , and the amount of freedom we had was unbelievable.

One of my fave Drifters songs, nothing wrong with it.

Not my cup of tea, but certainly not creepy. Some people seem to have a paedo-radar that goes off at any song that mentions, teenagers, school, girl or kissing and are convinced the singer or the song writer is or was a predatory paedophile. It is almost Brass Eye worthy or this

The Ted Nugent song aside, a lot of the songs cited above were written in or before the mid-60s, when pop music was a teenage phenomenon, that people would grow out of by the time they hit their 20s. So it makes sense that the songs feature themes that would resonate with them. First loves, teenage heartbreaks, dating at the cinema, going steady and unrequited crushes.

Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson is a paedophilia concept album, but I rather think it was an attempt to provoke and shock, as his next album was about Scatology and the one after that, was a Third Reich concept album called Rock around the Bunker.

16 then isn't the same as 16 now. 16 year olds weren't children, most of them had full time jobs, they were just young adults.

How about "kissing in the back row" by the Drifters?

That wasn't a 60s song, though, was it? Having said that, in the early 60s, it was quite normal for teenagers to be allowed out only on Saturday nights - I was one of them. If you had a boyfriend, you might walk home with him after school, but he'd be expected to leave you at the gate. And yes, the back row at the cinema was where most first kisses happened.

It really was a different time. Many of us felt too young to be having sex and there was a huge terror around pregnancy so that tended to keep us in check until much later than would be usual today.

Having a boyfriend meant holding hands and kissing. It meant long walks together and sitting in cafes with a Coca Cola listening to "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" on the juke box - not for one moment did we think that a grown man was singing about lusting after young girls - it was a song about a girl, from a boy.

I'd say there was a huge difference between the early 60s and the late 60s though, both in music and general behaviour.

Yup, I agree with BoysofMelody's and ellestyle's interpretation of that Drifters' song, Wino... I've always pictured a strict DM of the girl not approving of her DD dating anyone, unless she puts her schoolwork first.

And the (similar age?) narrator being the cheeky lad ("steady date") Mom's not mad keen on, yet knows her DD's serious about, hence reluctantly allows them to meet on the weekend.

1964, America...I think the minimum driving age varied by state but was mostly 16 like today? So "I pick you up from school" might just mean he goes to a different one/ or has left and is already working.

And didn't we all use the cinema as a perfect spot for a bit of (fairly tame, in retrospect!) teenage experimenting, away from nosy parents/ siblings?
(Or was that just my misspent youth? )

X-post with babyboomersrock

I agree about The Drifters' one being innocent.

Also - although posters are saying 16 year olds were adults and many of them worked, they didn't have the freedom today's 16-year-olds have. Parents ruled the roost; those teenagers who left school to work didn't keep their wages - they would hand it to the parents who would dish out pocket money, and they were still regraded as children.

I think that's probably why so many couples got married young - it was the only way to gain freedom from the parental home and it was often the only way to have a sexual relationship.

Jesus fucking wept, most of these songs were from the late 50's early 60's when teenagers first started getting some independence rather than being married off. 99% are totally innocent not like the shit teens have to put up with now.

Well said babyboomer. Totally agree. Pregnancy meant having to get married quickly or being sent away to have the baby adopted. It made teenagers much more cautious !

If you're looking for dodgy, my Dad woke me up by blasting that song into my room at about a billion decibels on my 16th birthday (funilly enough, almost exactly 16 years ago)

The song is definitely fine. It's just about some kids, the boy with a crush on the girl. It was a different time. (It was one of my Dads youth club songs and he loves it, that's why he played it to me.)