Artist · chart history · #82 in indie & aaa artist polls
The Velvet Underground
Band New York United States Active 1964–1996 Lou Reed’s seminal rock band
The Velvet Underground formed in 1964 in New York, United States and was active until 1996. The Velvet Underground has 170 chart appearances on 68 radio countdowns from 21 stations on RockLists, spanning 1989–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Sweet Jane”, which appears on 38 lists with a best position of #24. The station that charted The Velvet Underground most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 35 appearances.
The Velvet Underground came out of New York City and took their name in 1965 from a 1963 book about unusual sexual practices, which tells you plenty about where their heads were. While the rest of rock was chasing sunshine, Lou Reed on guitar and vocals, John Cale on viola, bass and organ, Sterling Morrison on guitar and Moe Tucker on drums were drilling into the city's underbelly, with drones, feedback and deadpan street poetry.
Andy Warhol became their manager in 1966, made them the house band at his studio, the Factory, and took them on the road with his multimedia circus, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. The German singer and model Nico joined them for the debut, The Velvet Underground & Nico, in 1967: "Heroin", "I'm Waiting for the Man" and the fragile "Femme Fatale", provocative songs delivered deadpan, without a flicker of apology. It met critical indifference and poor sales, and it has since come to be hailed as one of the greatest albums ever made.
White Light/White Heat in 1968 turned the noise all the way up, a feedback-drenched assault, and then Cale was out and Doug Yule was in. The next two records went for something gentler and more accessible. The Velvet Underground, in 1969, has the hushed, heartbreaking "Pale Blue Eyes" and the chugging "What Goes On", and Loaded, in 1970, has "Sweet Jane" and "Rock & Roll", two of the most gloriously simple guitar songs ever written, plus "Who Loves the Sun". Both sold far below what Reed and the labels had hoped. By the early '70s everyone but Yule was gone, and a final album, Squeeze, appeared under the name in 1973.
Their influence ran far ahead of their sales: their raw subject matter and experiments fed straight into punk rock and new wave. VU, a set of long-lost recordings, came out in 1985. Reed, Cale, Morrison and Tucker reunited for well-received shows in 1993 and released Live MCMXCIII. Morrison died in 1995, and the survivors played together at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1996. Reed died in 2013, and the band received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by The Velvet Underground on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sweet Jane | 38 | #24 | – | – | |
| 2 | Rock & Roll | 43 | #17 | – | – | |
| 3 | Pale Blue Eyes | 25 | #24 | – | – | |
| 4 | I'm Waiting For The Man | 20 | #88 | – | – | |
| 5 | Heroin | 12 | #42 | – | – | |
| 6 | White Light / White Heat | 6 | #213 | – | – | |
| 7 | What Goes On | 5 | #276 | – | – | |
| 8 | Who Loves The Sun | 3 | #254 | – | – | |
| 9 | Femme Fatale | 4 | #610 | – | – | |
| 10 | Oh! Sweet Nuthin' | 3 | #389 | – | – | |
| 11 | All Tomorrow's Parties | 4 | #696 | – | – | |
| 12 | Sunday Morning | 1 | #140 | – | – | |
| 13 | I'm Waitin' For My Man | 1 | #484 | – | – | |
| 14 | Foggy Notion | 1 | #641 | – | – | |
| 15 | Waiting for My Man | 1 | #757 | – | – | |
| 16 | Venus In Furs | 1 | #1860 | – | – | |
| 17 | Sister Ray | 1 | #1849 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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