Sixteen

Album: The House That Dirt Built (2009)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Fathers everywhere are mortified with the thought of their teenage daughters sneaking into clubs, and in England, where the drinking age is 18, some very young girls can worm their way in. The Heavy is from the small British town of Noid, and their lead singer Kelvin Swaby told Songfacts what inspired the song: "I was DJing quite a bit at that point whilst we were working on Great Vengeance, basically the first album. We come from a little town, and I'd be out DJing four or five nights a week. It was good for me - the money was good for me, the nights were great. But I always saw these kids that used to creep into the clubs. You know when people are too young, because they get there far too early, just because the doorman, their guard is down, and they want people in the club. So I used to note that there was all of these kids that were made up, they'd make themselves up to look like these 23-year-old dolls, but you knew that they were like 15, 16. So I'd see it night after night, whether I was in my town or whether I was in London, or whether I was in Bristol DJing. And for me, it was just like, Okay, that's one side of it. The other side of it is that you have these men that, I'm sure they know that these girls are young, kind of too young, maybe. So you see them plying them with alcohol. But these girls want to be in there because they want to be older, they want to grow up so quickly. And so I'm saying that they're playing with the devil. It was just an observation. It's an observational song."
  • There is a carnival atmosphere in this song that was inspired by some of Swaby's favorite blues singers. The Heavy frontman told Songfacts: "I love the idea of the way that Screamin' Jay Hawkins did 'I Put A Spell On You.' It's like, well, let's go with that style of blues, rather than just playing 8-bar blues. As much as it is 8-bar blues, it's just the horns, and the horns are big in what we do. It just emphasizes every single line I sing, it emphasizes. [Singing] 'I saw her dancing with the devil,' ba ba ba bum – so you're waiting for the next line: 'And he was wearing my shoes,' ba ba ba… so that was the way that we decided to go about that. The idea of it was Screamin' Jay rolling with Tom Waits."
  • The popular video was shot in Coney Island, New York, which was a thriving recreational area in the first half of the 20th century, but is now mostly deserted. The remains of the amusement park make a striking backdrop. Swaby explained: "Michael Maxxis, the video director, decided that we should go to Coney Island. We were in New York for a few days, and he was like, 'Let's go to Coney Island, because it's just so wrecked, so rotten down there now. And it just seethes the vibe of the song.' And it does."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Yacht Rock Quiz

Yacht Rock QuizFact or Fiction

Christopher Cross with Deep Purple? Kenny Loggins in Caddyshack? A Fact or Fiction all about yacht rock and those who made it.

Dean Friedman - "Ariel"

Dean Friedman - "Ariel"They're Playing My Song

Dean's saga began with "Ariel," a song about falling in love with a Jewish girl from New Jersey.

Concert Disasters

Concert DisastersFact or Fiction

Ozzy biting a dove? Alice Cooper causing mayhem with a chicken? Creed so bad they were sued? See if you can spot the real concert mishaps.

Michael Glabicki of Rusted Root

Michael Glabicki of Rusted RootSongwriter Interviews

Michael tells the story of "Send Me On My Way," and explains why some of the words in the song don't have a literal meaning.

Kevin Godley

Kevin GodleySongwriter Interviews

Kevin Godley talks about directing classic videos for The Police, U2 and Duran Duran, and discusses song and videos he made with 10cc and Godley & Creme.

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in Songs

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in SongsSong Writing

Elvis, Little Richard and Cheryl Cole have all sung about Teddy Bears, but there is also a terrifying Teddy song from 1932 and a touching trucker Teddy tune from 1976.