Sweet Little Sixteen

Song facts

From Wikipedia:

“Sweet Little Sixteen” is a rock and roll song written and first recorded by Chuck Berry, who released it as a single in January 1958. His performance of it is that year at the Newport Jazz Festival was included in the documentary film “Jazz on a Summer’s Day“. It reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, Berry’s second-highest position ever on that chart (surpassed only by his suggestive hit “My Ding-A-Ling“, which reached number one in 1972). “Sweet Little Sixteen” also reached number one on the R&B Best Sellers chart. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song number 272 on its list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” in 2004.

From The Beatles Bible:

Although a part of The Beatles’ live show for some time, they only recorded Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little Sixteen once – for a BBC radio show. […]

The group performed it for the sixth edition of the Pop Go The Beatles radio show, on 10 July 1963. It was recorded at the Aeolian Hall, London, and first broadcast on 23 July.

An earlier version, captured at the Star-Club in Hamburg in December 1962, also exists on Beatles bootlegs.

With Chuck Berry, I choose ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’ because it sums him up for me. To us, he was a magician making music that was exotic, yet normal, at the same time

Paul McCartney, in Desert Island Discs, 1982

Last updated on April 26, 2020

Lyrics