Big Star — Thirteen

A song harkening back to the naïvete and mixed innocence of budding pubescence.

It is track four on Big Star’s debut album "#1 Record". Though it was never released as a single, the song has been covered by Elliott Smith, Wilco, and Garbage, amongst many others. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked this song #396 out of it’s Top 500 Songs Of All Time, calling it “one of rock’s most beautiful celebrations of adolescence.”

It is featured in the 2016 movie "Handsome Devil".

Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom writes in his AllMusic review of the song, "There are few songs that capture the aching innocence of adolescence as well" and calls it a "perfect melancholy ballad". The song encompasses folk and pop characteristics with its use of simple lyrics and the acoustic guitar.

The song was originally featured on the 1972 album "#1 Record". It was released as a single by Big Star with “Watch the Sunrise” as the B-Side, on Ardent Records, but was mislabeled as “Don’t Lie to Me”.

"Thirteen" was featured in the finale of "That '70s Show". The song was covered by Grace VanderWaal and Graham Verchere in the 2020 movie "Stargirl" on Disney+ with a Grace Vanderwaal only performance appearing as a bonus on the soundtrack.

The clip Big Star — Thirteen can be downloaded for free and without registration.