Top 10 The Velvet Underground Songs
Script written by Joe Jatcko.
#10: “Pale Blue Eyes”
The Velvet Underground (1969)
Appearing on the group’s third album— the first not to feature co-founder John Cale—this song is a study in understatement for a band previously known for their heavy, guitar driven sound. A bittersweet ballad penned by Lou Reed for his first love – who just happened to be married at the time – Reed trades in his usual sarcastic wit for earnestness in one of the bands most beautiful and haunting songs.
#9: “I’ll Be Your Mirror”
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
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The recording session for this song was so difficult that vocalist Nico was literally brought to tears during the process. However, Nico’s emotional breakdown was apparently just what her vocal delivery needed, as one last “Hail-Mary” take turned out to be perfect. The track ended up becoming one of the most memorable songs on the band’s debut album and a personal favorite of Lou Reed’s, who had written the lyrics for Nico.
#8: “Venus in Furs”
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
Taking its name and subject matter from the risqué 19th century Leopold von Sacher-Masoch novella, the song is a leathery, unforgetable foray into the shadowy world of sadomasochistic sex. Provocative in more ways than one, it features John Cale’s discordant and foreboding viola and Lou Reed on a guitar with each string tuned to the same note, albeit on different octaves. This song still stands as one of the band’s heaviest, most distinctive and menacingly dark songs.
#7: “Sunday Morning”
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
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Intended to create a hit for the band’s legendary first album, the production on this track is fuller and more accomplished than many other songs on the record. It puts one in mind of a perfectly lazy Sunday morning …if you ignore the subtle desperation of the lyrics, that is. Originally written with Nico’s vocals in mind for the lead, Lou Reed ended up recording the vocals, with Nico serving up dreamy back-up.
#6: “White Light, White Heat”
White Light / White Heat (1968)
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If the Velvet’s first album was intended to defy the conventions of rock n’ roll, their second album abandoned all pretenses of courting a mainstream audience. It’s bold and unhinged, and the first song and the title track sets the tone nicely for the rest of the album. Ostensibly an ode to the joys of amphetamine use, it sees the band exercising some demons by turning their amps as loud as they can go. Harmonic yet chaotic, its outro descends into a cacophony of distorted bass and discordant noise.
#5: “Rock and Roll”
Loaded (1970)
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As the ‘60s came to a close, the underappreciated band signed to major label Atlantic to produce their swan song. The head of the label apparently told Reed to avoid the themes of sex and drugs and just focus on making an album loaded with hits. No song epitomized that goal better than this one, which is essentially a tribute to the radio hits that inspired front man Lou Reed in his early days of songwriting. Ultimately succeeding in becoming a radio hit, this track is still one of the band’s most recognizable.
#4: “Heroin”
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
While rock songs are often laced with veiled references to drug use, this one is pretty blatant and deals bluntly with that lifestyle. One of the Velvet’s most visceral songs, it has become recognized as a classic, channeling the sensory assault of drug use into sound and words, featuring a quickening tempo meant to emulate the rush of heroin use. Its moral ambivalence toward the taboo subject of heroin was jarring upon its release, but its beauty and influence have long outlived the controversy.
#3: “Sister Ray”
White Light / White Heat (1968)
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Containing eight individual characters, clocking in at over 17 minutes, and feeling like its about to spin completely out of control the entire time, this is perhaps the band’s most legendary and challenging song. Boasting a robust, swaggering riff right out of the gate, it’s a penetrating look into the psychosexual underbelly of New York City. With hysterical guitar solos bursting out of every seam and recorded in just one take, it is quite simply a song that no other band could have created.
#2: “I’m Waiting for the Man”
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
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Featuring what would become their trademark dirty guitar sound and iconic piano-driven vamp, the second track from the band’s iconoclastic debut puts the listener inside the shoes of a drug addict on a mission to score from his man. Serving as a counterpart to “Heroin” and pushing the boundaries of the rock and roll song structure, this song remains one of the band’s most popular, and the lyrical content still rings true today – “except,” as Lou Reed once said, “the price.”
Before we reveal our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:
- “All Tomorrow’s Parties”
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
- “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’”
Loaded (1970)
- “The Gift”
White Light / White Heat (1968)
- “Femme Fatale”
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
- “Beginning to See the Light”
The Velvet Underground (1969)
#1: “Sweet Jane”
Loaded (1970)
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Highlighting the late Lou Reed’s story-telling style of lyricism and a sunny, wistful riff, no song made the band’s always-edgy subject matter sound so good. It has all the hallmarks of a catchy love song and has become one of Reed’s trademark tunes. Though initially marred by a missing bridge, which was edited out after Reed left the band, various recordings of the song have been released over the years and it has been covered by dozens of bands. It stands as arguably the most musical and recognizable song in the band’s short but legendary career.
Do you agree with our list? Which Velvet Underground song do you think is most legendary? For more musical top 10s published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
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