Not all albums are a charting success upon their initial release, but it doesn’t mean that they won’t find fame years later.
In March 1967, The Velvet Underground & Nico, the self-titled debut album by American rock band The Velvet Underground and German singer Nico, was released via Verve Records. Featuring songs like “Sunday Morning,” “Femme Fatal,” and “I’m Waiting for the Man,” the album is now considered one of the most influential works of music from the 1960s, but that wasn’t always the case.
When it was first released, the album failed to find commercial success, selling only around 30,000 copies in its first five years and barely reaching the bottom of the charts. However, decades later, in 2013, following the death of The Velvet Underground singer Lou Reed, the album experienced a resurgence and returned to the charts, peaking at No. 43 on the Official Albums chart and No. 129 on the Billboard 200.
A few years later, in 2018, The Velvet Underground & Nico re-entered the charts after a boost in physical sales in the U.K. placed it at No. 54 on the Official Physical Albums chart.
The record was produced by Andy Warhol, and the band credited the pop artist for being the reason why they could release the exact type of album that they had envisioned. Warhol was also the artist behind the striking cover art, which was voted No. 1 by Billboard on the list of 100 best album covers of all time.
“Because he was Andy Warhol, they left everything in its pure state. They would say, ‘Is that okay, Mr. Warhol?’ And he’d say, ‘Oh yeah.’ And so they didn’t change anything,” explained Reed in a 1993 interview. “And so right at the very beginning, we experienced what it was like to be in the studio and record things our way and have essentially total freedom.”
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