Sixteen Candles (1958)
Words and Music By: Luther Dixon and Allyson Khent
The Crests
The Crests were one of the more colorful groups of their era; the Brooklyn/Staten Island doo-wop quartet was an unusual ethnic mix -- including one Italian, two blacks, and a Puerto Rican -- and was fronted by the powerful lead singer, Johnny Maestro (born Mastrangelo). Formed in the late ’50s they achieved local fame in the New York City area, where they were considered one of the best vocal groups around.
It wasn’t until two important deejays took a fancy to the B side of their second Coed single that the Crests made it onto the national charts and became established as a major group. In 1958, Coed gave the Crests two songs for their second single. The first was “Beside You,” a standard doo-wop tune that was expected to get radio airplay. The flip side was “16 Candles,” a teen birthday theme that Maestro remembers as “a little classier,” brought in by staff writers Luther Dixon and Allyson Kent (Dixon co-wrote a ton of rock classics, including “Soldier Boy” and “Mama Said” by the Shirelles). Alan Freed of New York’s WINS and Dick Clark on ABC-TV, were two of the most influential deejays in America, and they liked “16 Candles” a lot more than “Beside You.” They both played the song incessantly. Soon other disc jockeys began playing that record, which led teenagers to start buying it, which led to the song becoming #2 in the country. It was a clear-cut chain, beginning with a few important jocks who decided what American kids would want to hear. And that’s the way it happened with many tunes. Today “16 Candles” is considered a classic, but we never would have heard it at all if it hadn’t been for Freed and Clark.
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Song
"Sixteen Candles" (1958)
©The Crests
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