Craig Douglas, the 1960s chart favourite best known for Only Sixteen, has died at 85.
The British singer – who briefly outsold Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley when Only Sixteen became a runaway UK smash in 1959 – passed away following a short illness, his representative confirmed to the Isle of Wight County Press.
Douglas dominated the charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s and became a regular fixture on television variety shows.
Born Terry Perkins on the Isle of Wight, Douglas was working as a milkman when he won the TV talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1959. That victory launched him into the national spotlight and led to a recording contract that would make him one of the most recognisable young performers of the era. His gentle voice and clean‑cut image earned him the nickname “the Golden Boy,” and he quickly became a favourite among teenage audiences.
Douglas scored his biggest hit in 1959 with Only Sixteen, a cover of the Sam Cooke song that spent four weeks at No.1 and became one of the decade’s defining pop singles. He followed it with a string of chart successes including Pretty Blue Eyes, A Hundred Pounds of Clay, The Heart of a Teenage Girl and When the Girl in Your Arms Is the Girl in Your Heart, cementing his place as one of Britain’s most bankable young stars.
His popularity extended far beyond the charts. Douglas was a regular on Six-Five Special, Oh Boy! and Thank Your Lucky Stars, and toured with some of the biggest names of the era, including Cliff Richard, Adam Faith and Billy Fury. He also appeared in the 1962 film It’s Trad, Dad!, directed by a young Richard Lester, who would later work with The Beatles.
Although his chart career slowed as musical tastes shifted in the mid‑1960s, Douglas continued performing for decades, becoming a staple of nostalgia tours, cabaret shows and holiday‑park residencies.
During an Amersham Rock ‘n’ Roll Club benefit concert in 2010, he performed from a wheelchair.
The following year, he released his final album, The Craig Douglas Project.