Oh Very Young
song by Cat Stevens
"Oh Very Young" is a song composed by Cat Stevens. It was released on his 1974 album Buddha and the Chocolate Box, as well as several later "Best of..." and "Greatest Hits" albums.
The song reached number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the Easy Listening chart. It spent 15 weeks in the Australian KMR Top-100 chart, peaking at #19 after entering on 13th May 1974.
According to Stevens's producer, Paul Samwell-Smith, the song was written for Smith's son Nicholas. Stevens himself called the song "very optimistic", having written it in a happy mood.
Chart performance
In popular culture
The song was featured in the 2025 film adaptation of The Thursday Murder Club.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Oh Very Young” is song by Cat Stevens. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Very, Young and song, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “song by Cat Stevens” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7080551. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1974 and 2025.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Oh Very Young”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Oh Very Young primary sources, Oh Very Young archive and Very research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Oh Very Young”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Oh Very Young” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.