What’s (Teen) Age Got to Do With It?

The letter by the eighth grader from Marina del Rey was in response to our review of Tiffany that suggested the 16-year-old showed no more singing ability or stage presence in a recent appearance than you might find in the average high school talent contest.

“Your review,” wrote 13-year-old Jamie, “was, to say the least, a bit rude, don’t you think?”

Jamie, who saw Tiffany at the Universal Amphitheatre and found her show wonderful, also raised the question that other readers, including adults, asked in maintaining that the review was too harsh: Should a teen-ager be judged by normal--or adult--standards?

“After all,” more than one reader asked, “what were you doing at 16?”

Well, I wasn’t trying to make hit records at 16--but then I wasn’t trying to make hit records or entering talent shows at 26.

Other teen-agers, however, were pursuing their pop dreams--and several made noteworthy records--in some cases, revolutionary records that helped reshape pop music and unveiled a glimmer (or more) of an artistic vision that would later be honed.

Changes in marketing patterns and audience demographics have made it increasingly difficult in recent years for teen-age singers to get record contracts, so it’s refreshing to see a few of them--including Tiffany and Debbie Gibson--break through.

This exercise isn’t designed to attack Tiffany. Many of the artists on the list were 19 when they made their recording debuts--and three years can make an enormous difference in the maturing of a talent. Tiffany still has time to surprise us. The point here is that we don’t need a separate set of standards.

This ranking is based, for the most part, on the contributions that artists made while still in their teens--though in some cases the future impact of a vision first displayed in the teen recordings is taken into account.

The 10 greatest teen-age rock contributors:

1. Elvis Presley--Thirteen months after graduating from Humes High School in Memphis, Presley--employing his instinctive blend of country, gospel and blues influences--went into the tiny Sun Records studios in 1954 and recorded the first of the 15 tracks that, in large measure, defined the instrumentation and attitude of rock ‘n’ roll. Before his 20th birthday, Presley had recorded nine of the songs and was creating a buzz in the region with his energetic stage shows. Presley was 21 when “Heartbreak Hotel” made him a national star, but these Sun records are widely viewed as one of the birthmoments of rock--and their influence was hailed by everyone from John Lennon to Bruce Springsteen.

2. Stevie Wonder--The remarkable thing about Wonder wasn’t that he was just 13 when Motown released the wonderfully jubilant “Fingertips, Pt. 2” single in 1963 or that he was just 15 when he recorded “Uptight (Everything’s Alright),” but that he had two greatest hits albums before he turned 22. Wonder, the artist, didn’t fully emerge until he declared his creative independence from Motown in the ‘70s and took full control of his own recordings, but the early records left little doubt that he was one of the industry’s most gifted and prodigious talents.

3. Michael Jackson--Here, remarkably, is a case of someone having four terrific No. 1 singles in 1970 and demonstrating breathtaking dancing ability while still a pre-teen. By the time he left his teens, Jackson (with his brothers and on his own) registered 14 other Top 20 hits, including singles (“Dancing Machine” and “Enjoy Yourself”) that were clearly the artistic bridges to the more sophisticated, R & B-accented pop he’d showcase in albums like “Thriller” and “Bad.”

4. Pete Townshend-- “People try to put us down/ Just because we get around/ Things they do look awful cold/ Hope I die before I get old.” Townshend was already 20 when the Who released the classic “My Generation” in 1965, but he had written the Who’s “I Can’t Explain” and “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere.” With fellow teen Keith Moon and the rest of the band, Townshend had also begun to evolve into what was to become one of the most aggressive and stirring live acts ever in rock.

5. Eddie Cochran--One of the first 25 artists inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Los Angeles-based Cochran was both a lively performer and an outstanding guitarist. Though Cochran’s musical hero was clearly Presley, his teen records (including “Summertime Blues,” later redone by both Blue Cheer and the Who) tended to be even more unabashed expressions of youthful frustration and desire than Presley’s own, post-Sun efforts. Cochran was 21 when he was killed in a 1960 accident in England, where he was especially influential.

6. Frankie Lymon--No one until Jackson more than a decade later came close to expressing the youthful enthusiasm of R & B with even a fraction of the disarming qualities of Lymon, a New Yorker who was just 14 when he and his vocal group (the appropriately named Teenagers ) hit the charts with “Why Do Fools Fall in Love”--a tune redone by Diana Ross in 1981.

7. Ricky Nelson--Another member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nelson never exhibited the boldness or bite of a great rock singer, but his best recordings were well crafted and exuded a disarming innocence. He had 18 Top 40 hits before his 20th birthday. He was 17 when he broke into the Top 10 with “A Teenager’s Romance.”

8. Van Morrison--The Irishman, one of the most compelling vocalists and original writers ever in rock, was 19 when he recorded “Gloria,” and “Here Comes the Night” with the group Them. He had left school at 15 to tour Europe with the R & B-edged band, the Monarchs.

9. Steve Winwood--Just 16 when he joined the Spencer Davis Group in 1964, Winwood--who went on to even more acclaim with Traffic and, eventually, on his own--was an amazingly mature singer and one of the most convincing of the early blue-eyed soul singers to come from England. The teen hits included “Gimme Some Lovin’ ” and “I’m a Man.”

10. Alex Chilton--Lead singer of the Box Tops, one of the most under-rated rock groups of the late ‘60s, Chilton was 16 when his recording of “The Letter” went to No. 1 in 1967. The group’s equally dynamic “Cry Like a Baby” also hit the Top 10 that year. The Memphis-based band fused terrific pop melodies with the seductive blues-tinged arrangements and Chilton’s earnest, appealing vocals. He subsequently made some highly regarded records with the group Big Star and still tours as a solo artist.

And now, some honorable mentions: Eric Clapton (18 when he joined the Yardbirds), Dion DiMucci (18 when the Belmonts recorded “I Wonder Why”), Carole King (18 when the Shirelles recorded “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” a song she wrote with lyricist Gerry Goffin), Booker T. Jones (the keyboardist with the extraordinary Memphis rhythm section the M.G.’s, Jones was 17 when the M.G.’s recorded “Green Onions”), Cher (19 when she recorded “I Got You Babe” with Sonny), Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel (16 when they recorded under the names Tom and Jerry), Brenda Lee (15 when “Sweet Nothin’s” was released).

Plus: Brian Wilson (19 when the Beach Boys released their first single), Richie Valens (16 when the combination hit “Donna”/”La Bamba” was released), Phil Spector (17 when the Teddy Bears recorded “To Know Him Is to Love Him”), Donovan (18 when he recorded “Catch the Wind”), Aretha Franklin (18 when her first Columbia single reached the Top 100), Janis Ian (16 when “Society’s Child” hit the charts), and, finally, Paul McCartney and George Harrison (by 19 and 18, respectively, the Beatles were the rage of Liverpool).

Lastly, those who belong in the Tiffany Wing of the Teen Pop World of big sales/minimal contribution: Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Donny Osmond, Shaun Cassidy.