Album · The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground & Nico is an album by The Velvet Underground, released in 1967. 6 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 42 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “I'm Waiting For The Man”, on 20 lists with a best position of #88.
The Velvet Underground & Nico, the Banana Album to anyone who has held that Andy Warhol sleeve, slunk out on Verve in March 1967, and nothing else in the racks sounded remotely like it. Warhol, the band's manager, who had them playing in his Exploding Plastic Inevitable show, designed the cover and co-produced with Tom Wilson, and the record pairs the band with the German singer and model Nico.
The sound is rock and roll stripped to the bone and scraped with avant-garde noise: Lou Reed's flat, streetwise voice and guitar, John Cale's droning viola, Sterling Morrison's guitar and Moe Tucker's primitive thump, with Nico's cool, deadpan voice adding a chill of its own. Reed's songs stare straight at drugs, prostitution, sadomasochism and city life, and "Heroin", "I'm Waiting For The Man" and "Venus In Furs" still sound dangerous. Some stores banned it, plenty of radio stations wouldn't touch it and it sold poorly, but the Library of Congress eventually added it to the National Recording Registry.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from The Velvet Underground & Nico on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I'm Waiting For The Man | 20 | #88 | – | 1999–2023 | |
| 2 | Heroin | 12 | #42 | – | 1991–2020 | |
| 3 | Femme Fatale | 4 | #610 | – | 2002–2018 | |
| 4 | All Tomorrow's Parties | 4 | #696 | – | 2019–2023 | |
| 5 | Sunday Morning | 1 | #140 | – | 2024 | |
| 6 | Venus In Furs | 1 | #1860 | – | 2020 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.