"Happy BirthdaySweet Sixteen" is a pop song released in 1961 by Neil Sedaka. Sedaka wrote the music and performed the song, while the lyrics were written by Howard Greenfield. The song is noted for being similar in musical structure to Take Good Care of My Baby by Bobby Vee, and additionally for its resemblance to the melody of the Chiffons' subsequent 1963 hit "One Fine Day". Both of these songs exhibiting similarity to "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" were penned by the team of Carole King and Gerry Goffin. The song reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and no 3 on the UK Singles Chart. The narrator sings the song to a female friend of his from childhood upon her sixteenth birthday, reminiscing about the ups and downs of their friendship thus far and declaring that now that she has grown from an awkward tomboy into a beautiful young woman, he wants her for his sweetheart. This was one of several Sedaka recordings that employed the services of drummer Gary Chester. Other musicians on the record include Al Casamenti, Art Reyerson and Charles Macey on guitar, Ernie Hayes on piano, George Duviver on bass, Artie Kaplan on sax, Seymour Barab and Morris Stonzek on cellos, David Guillet, Joseph Haber, Louie Haber, Harold Kohon, David Sackson, Maurice Stine, Louis Stone, and Arnold Goldberg on violins, and Phil Kraus and George Devens on percussion. A year after the song became a hit, Sedaka's brother-in-law, chemist Ronnie Grossman, wrote lyrics for a sequel song from the sixteen-year-old's perspective. In "It Hurts to Be Sixteen," the female singer laments her "in-between" state between childhood and adulthood, insisting she has fallen in love but that those around her insist she is too young. "It Hurts to Be Sixteen," with a melody written by Sedaka, was a minor hit for Andrea Carroll in 1963.
Chart history
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Other versions
A Bobby Vee version was released on the album "30 Big Hits from the 60's" in 1964.
In the Roseanne episode "Pretty in Black", Roseanne, Dan and several of their friends sing the first chorus of this song to a mortified Darlene at her "sweet sixteen" party. A version of the song by an uncredited performer is also played over the closing credits of the episode.
In an episode of King of QueensArthur Spooner, played by Jerry Stiller claims that he inspired Sedaka to this song. In the end of this episode Sedaka appears as himself.
