Lyrics to
16 Candles

This version of 16 Candles was released by Jackson 5 in 1971.

Visit the Jackson 5 Lyrics profile at Decade Lyrics - it has the 16 Candles lyrics as well as the rest of the songs by Jackson 5.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Jackson 5 or about the 1970s in general.

Happy birthday
Happy birthday
I love you so

Sixteen candles
Make a lovely sight
But not as bright
As your hazel eyes

Blow out the candles baby
Make a wish come true
Blow out three wishes
That you love me too

You’re only sixteen (oh girl)
But you’re my teenage queen (sixteen)
But you’re the prettiest and the lovliest girl
I’ve ever seen (I’ve ever seen)

Sixteen candles
In my heart will glow
Forever and ever
Oh, I love you so (I love you so)

Happy birthday
Happy birthday, baby
I love you so, oh, oh, oh, oh
Happy birthday
Happy birthday, baby
I love you so, baby, baby, baby, baby
Happy birthday
Happy birthday, baby
I love you so

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Want more lyrics and songs by Jackson 5?

Jackson 5 has released many songs over the years besides 16 Candles. Jackson 5 released songs from 1969 to 1979 spanning across albums like Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5, ABC, Third Album, Christmas Album, Maybe Tomorrow, Goin' Back To Indiana, Lookin' Through The Windows, In Japan, Skywriter, G.I.T.: Get It Together, Dancing Machine, Moving Violation, Joyful Jukebox Music, and Boogie. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Jackson 5.

If you're a fan of 1970s music looking for more songs from 1971 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and 16 Candles by Jackson 5

When you decide to study the lyrics to 16 Candles, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1971 song by Jackson 5. Some of the lyrics to 16 Candles have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Jackson 5 and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to 16 Candles if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to 16 Candles" means the words set to the music of 16 Candles, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Jackson 5. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to 16 Candles and the lyrics to 16 Candles are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Jackson 5 who came here looking just for the lyrics to 16 Candles, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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