This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Seen you naked in the bath
Cigarette stains on your hands
Wilted flowers in a vase
I ask how are you
Yeah how are you?
I see the lipstick on your glass
I think you're drunk, I start to laugh
I find your note, the letters ran
It said I love you
Yeah I love you
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Sixteen candles down the drain
I watch you passed out forever
I touch your face, you start to smile
And on your note is my reply
I wish I loved you
I wish I loved you
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Cigarette stains on your hands
Wilted flowers in a vase
I ask how are you
Yeah how are you?
I see the lipstick on your glass
I think you're drunk, I start to laugh
I find your note, the letters ran
It said I love you
Yeah I love you
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Sixteen candles down the drain
I watch you passed out forever
I touch your face, you start to smile
And on your note is my reply
I wish I loved you
I wish I loved you
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Lyrics submitted by black_cow_of_death, edited by sdsullivan, RemmySkye
Molly (Sixteen Candles) Lyrics as written by Timothy Cross Michael Cross
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Royalty Network, O/B/O DistroKid, Spirit Music Group, Songtrust Ave, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Regardless of whether she is drunk or dead; I think it's obvious that Vinnie Dombroski of Sponge hooked up with a sixteen year old at some point.
RIGHT! I love this btw!
I've submitted a lyric change, as it's clear in the acoustic version they sing "I watch you passed out for a while" (not forever). That may change how you view the story of the lyric.
While I think it's possible that Molly has tried to kill herself, it's also possible that she's just drunk and smoked herself into a stupor because the guy she loves doesn't love her.
Clearly both "Don't ask why" and "sixteen candles down the drain" are from Molly's Point of View -- which may indicate a feeling of a wasted life rather than dying. How many of us haven't had a busted love affair at 16 and thought the world had ended?
I prefer to think she recovers after a night of over-indulgence.
For some reason I always thought this song was about a girl that commited suicide.
But I'm just a downer.
the one thing that i don't think is consistant with her being dead is when he touches her face she starts to smile. she's obviously sixteen years old, very young for all the terriblness of love. i assume the guy is older. maybe it's her birthday now and that;s why he came to see her. he comes in and sees her, her cigarette has been burning for awhile so the ash has fallen on her hands. i imagine they have some form of sexual relationship since he just goes in there while she's naked and starts talking to her. well she's obviously tryin to commit suicide. i imagine by ways of pills and alcohol, so she's probably half passed out half awake, so she just seems unconsious. he finds the note, thinks she's dead and looks at her awhile and feels awful, but when he goes down to touch her she smiles a little still being a little consious and he wishes he loved her so she wouldn't have done such a terrible thing. it's not sixteen candles down the drain because she's dead, they're down the drain because this will mess up her youth, she'll probably go through a lot becuase of an attempted suicide and maybe even be committed for awhile.
why has no one commented on this?@ It is just simply a good song :)
is this song named after Molly Ringwald from the movie "Sixteen Candles"?
@emoTHUG55 Molly as in the drug Molly. That's my opinion anyway. When I was 16 myself I had no idea what it meant.
it's not.. it was a coincidence and was not intended to correlate with the movie. the guys of sponge however did want to have molly ringwald in the video for the song due to the common misunderstanding, but something in her contract screwed it up so she ended up not doing it.
a very nice song.
@gl0ws in the dark <br /> <br /> I remember 2nd hand claims from the band that it had nothing to do with Ringwald. But it seemed like they were being coy. So much of youth culture was drenched in irony, back then. People have always loved John Hughes movies but it was hard to admit it in the zeitgeist. That they wanted Ringwald in the video suggests they approved of the association. <br /> <br /> Not that this song is about the movie. It's clearly about something else. Just that the pop culture reference to the old, doo-wop song & movie evoke an image.
Cool song, but what is it exactly is talking about?
It's about a girl who loves this guy, but he doesn't love her back
I used to like this song back in 1994 or 1995