1959 Craig Douglas: Only Sixteen

You've got to be either brave or stupid to tackle a Sam Cooke song though I think in this instance Craig 'The Singing Milkman' Douglas is more than a bit of both. Brave for thinking his plod of a voice could follow any path trailed by Mr Cooke in the first place and stupid for choosing 'Only Sixteen' as a song to cover. I can guess why he chose it -"But I was a mere lad of sixteen, I've aged a year since then" runs the bridge and Craig was seventeen himself at the time. Well there's nice.

Such hardwired gimmicks are all very well (and Douglas flogged the teen horse angle until it was beyond dead), but few would regard the cheery swing of 'Only Sixteen' as a song from Cooke's top drawer. It's main selling point was always Sam's own grit and honey voice that could spin the finest gold out of any old straw; Douglas is blessed with no such innate talents and so the song is left to fend for itself. With a bit of imagination something could have been salvaged, but some trilling vibrato doesn't go far when up against the square and chunky British knock off blandness of the music. In Craig's hands, 'Only Sixteen' has all the power and grace of a milkfloat, and this is especially noticeable when Cooke's own version is available for comparison in the same chart, albeit languishing way back at number 23. There's definitely no accounting for taste.