This played every couple hours on a loop at my place of work. I thought he had a great voice, and enjoyed the song. Once I started thinking about the lyrics, it squicked me out some and killed much of the enjoyment. It’s still in my 1,200+ daily random playlist, but mostly I skip it when it comes up. Wish I hadn’t paid attention to the lyrics and thought about it too much.
IIRC, he put all his money from this song up his nose, but eventually cleaned up and was a popular performer in his town/area for years after his fame.
I liked (and still kind of) like the song but did the models not hear the song before they performed in the video? If so, as far a I’m concerned consenting adults can choose how they portray themselves. What turns me off is the production value and the fact that what turned out to be a big hit has such a lame, uninteresting video.
In the 80s, German pop group Bad Boys Blue had a minor hit with the English-language song Pretty Young Girl. Partial lyrics below:
Pretty young girl on my mind
How I wish you to be mine?
Girl you’re no child anymore
Pretty young girl on my mind
Don’t you know, know I can’t hide
Can’t hide my feelings
You’re my girl and you’re sixteen
I heard on a podcast yesterday that the song was really about a teenage girl who’s father had died and he (Benny) was looking out for her. He is supposedly speaking to another guy who is trying to take her out.
I haven’t seen the video in years. I’m guessing it doesn’t come across that way.
This song has been one of my recurring earworms for decades. I’ve always wondered why the lyricist didn’t just use a more acceptable 2-syllable age, like 30, or 20, or even 19 for godsakes! But, the song was catchy and requires some vocal range to sing, so I still consider it a great song. This is the first time I’ve seen the somewhat disturbing video, however.
And Johnny Burnette released “You’re Sixteen” when he was 26; Ringo Starr covered it when he was 33. I always just pretended that Starr was singing it as if he were a teenager again.
I refuse to watch the video. I liked the song until I listened closely to the lyrics, and was disappointed that I did.
There are many pop songs that if you listen closely you hear lines that have a borderline “I like little girls” theme. I haven’t listened closely to pop music since 1991.
Ironically, that’s around the time that songs where grown men lust after sweet little teenage girls started to fade from the charts. There’s more explicit lyrics in songs from the 90s on, but way less about underage targets (at least in popular music, obviously weird shock acts will be shocking).
It’s so far over the top, it’s so pointless, that the whole video becomes a joke.
Mardones has got that Keith Richards/Iggy Pop “So Over The Hill He Fell Off the Cliff” look, where he could easily be a coked-up forty-something… and the girl they picked looks like she’s not even a teenager yet.
And she’s so unresponsive that it’s not creepy… because I really don’t think she was even filmed at the same time (maybe not even with this video in mind). She’s just staring off into space, even when he’s supposed to be talking (and pleading) with her… zero reaction.
So even if they were both real people, no worries. She doesn’t even know he exists, while he’s emoting his way down the street.
It is a shame…I really listened to the song for the first time, and the opening had some tasty interplay going on…
Different lyrics and no video, and it’d be a good song (we can change it to “She’s just twenty-seven and a half years old…”).
). The story there is similar to what I heard but not exact.