Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was sentenced for attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a girl under 13.
Sentencing, Judge Alistair McCreath said he could find "no real evidence" that Gadd had atoned for his crimes.
The 70-year-old showed no emotion as he left the dock at Southwark Crown Court.
Judge McCreath told Gadd it was clear his victims "were all profoundly affected" by his abuse of them.
"You did all of them real and lasting damage and you did so for no other reason than to obtain sexual gratification for yourself of a wholly improper kind," he said.
Judge McCreath said he assessed the seriousness of the offences by current guidelines, but he was limited to the maximum sentences that were available at the time the offences were committed, when "the sentencing climate was less severe".
"The offences for which I must pass sentence today took place many years ago at a time when in particular, in respect of one of them, the maximum sentence was considerably lower than that which is now available," he said.
Judge McCreath said the modern equivalent offence of unlawful intercourse with a child under 13 would be equivalent to rape of a child, but said he was not permitted to pass a life sentence.
He said the offence of attempted rape was "so serious" as to justify the maximum available sentence under the old regime of seven years, which he noted would be a lenient sentence under modern guidelines.
Sallie Bennett-Jenkins QC, defending, told the court that Gadd had been subject to a "very high degree of vilification" and "demonification" in the press after being jailed in Vietnam in 2006 for molesting two girls aged 11 and 12.
She said he had led "an increasingly isolated life" for the last decade and had been unable to walk down the street "without being the subject of vilification".
Gadd, from Marylebone, central London, had denied the allegations against him but was found guilty at the end of a three-week-long trial earlier this month.
He had been at the height of his fame when he attacked two girls aged 12 and 13 after inviting them backstage to his dressing room.
His youngest victim had been less than 10 years old when he crept into her bed and tried to rape her in 1975.
Judge McCreath described Gadd's abuse of a girl under 10 as "appalling" and said: "It is difficult to overstate the depravity of this dreadful behaviour."
He noted that in 2011 Gadd sought professional help to understand his sexual behaviour but said: "Whatever changes may have been effected in you by this treatment, they did not include any admission at all on your part of the wrong that you had done."
The allegations against Gadd came to light only years later when he became the first person to be arrested under Operation Yewtree - the investigation launched by the Met in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
Scotland Yard confirmed that it had received other information in light of Gadd's conviction, and that it is "currently being assessed".
Det Ch Insp Michael Orchard, from Operation Yewtree, said Gadd was a "habitual sexual predator who took advantage of the star status afforded to him".
He added: "His lack of remorse and defence that the victims were lying make his crimes all the more indefensible."
Mark Castle, chief executive of charity Victim Support, said: "This prison sentence is testament to the courage Glitter's victims showed in reporting their ordeal and bravely confronting this serial paedophile in court."
Former pop star Gary Glitter has been jailed for a total of 16 years for sexually abusing three young girls between 1975 and 1980.