Billy Idol - Sweet Sixteen (Chrysalis)

Bit too mild for me. My kind of mellow's a bit more romantic than Billy Idol. I like reggae or slow soul for relaxing to. I wouldn't buy this type of record though I expect lots of young girls will. I don't think he really knows what he's doing here. He used to be a rocker, didn't he? I wish him well, but it's just not my cuppa tea. (Neidet Salih, No 1, June 20, 1987)

What a sad tale this song tells. Sir Billiam is so bonkers about his 16 year old girlie that he builds a room for her to keep a rocking chair in (i.e. he envisages the relationship lasting quite some time), only to find that the ungrateful little vixen has scarpered with someone else. It's very weepsome, with a lolloping rhythm and a complete absence of the usual Idol rawk'n'roll screech-guitar; in fact, you can easily imagine a knicker-garlanded Tom Jones grimacing his way through a tortured version of "Sweet Sixteen" in cabaret. Could Billy Idol be the Tom Jones of the 21st century? It's not bloody impossible, as the great Welshman himself might say...  (Vici MacDonald, Smash Hits, June 3, 1987)