The Stooges or The Velvet Underground: Who fared commercially worse?
The world knows well by now that commercial performance has absolutely nothing to do with artistry. If the two correlated, the charts would have forever looked very different, with very different names leading the charge. But as it stands, there has always been a splinter between greatness and sale, a splinter that both Iggy Pop and Lou Reed knew well.
It feels weird to even dare to suggest that the pair of icons had it hard. Pop and Reed are two of the most respected names in rock. Miraculously alive still, Iggy continues selling out huge venues worldwide as people race to see him in action. As for Reed’s resting soul, his work both in The Velvet Underground and as a solo artist not only made him a beloved hero of rock and roll but a true pioneer. His legacy truly lives on in so many different artists, and across so many varied genres, thanks to his own expansive and dynamic creations.
Both their acts, The Stooges and The Velvet Underground, are deemed two of the most influential rock bands to have ever existed. But when we consider the charts or the sales stats, they were both flops, really.
Commercial flops, but isn’t that kind of a badge of honour? By now, isn’t it a rite of passage for artists to have their best weird failed by the masses or rejected by the mainstream? For acts like The Stooges and The Velvet Underground, the fact that they never topped the charts really only reaffirms their legacy as leaders for the outcasts, breaking down walls outside of the main arena.
Obviously, neither of them struggled. Back in the 1960s and ‘70s, the music world was far kinder, so even without major mainstream success, both acts could afford to keep going. They were also simply allowed to do what they did and be who they were, as I highly doubt their record labels were ever sitting them down and asking them to “please, please make more cookie-cutter pop”. If they ever did, the two bands rejected the calls and stayed on course, even if the course strayed far from the top of the charts.
Did The Velvet Underground ever chart?
The Velvet Underground, when they first broke out in 1967 with their debut record, were suddenly one of the most influential bands on the scene. Everyone wanted to see them and be like them, but outside of the echo chamber of new rock and roll fans, it seems very few people cared to support them financially. For all those years, for their entire recording career, they might have been inspiring, but that never helped them chart.
The band never had a charting single, nor did they have a charting album, or at least not until 1985, when VU, their complex compilation album, reached number 85. That was their highest rank, as their other album never made the top 100. The Velvet Underground & Nico sat at 129, while White Light/White Heat peaked at 200.
Did The Stooges ever chart?
It’s a similar story for The Stooges. Iggy Pop’s unit also had the added issue that they struggled to even make albums, given the sheer amount of carnage borne of their antics, but even when they did, and even when those albums were influential, they weren’t commercial hits.
Albums like their self-titled debut and Raw Power both changed the sound and swagger of rock and roll as it descended into punk, but neither of them charted. Nothing the band put out ever did until 2007, when The Weirdness peaked at 81 in the UK charts for only one week, then dropped off.
Who was the most commercially successful between the two?
Technically, The Velvet Underground beat The Stooges in the charts, even if neither was commercially successful in that way. If it’s boiled down to numbers, Lou Reed wins there, too.
It’s estimated that overall, The Velvet Underground sold around two million copies of their albums, with their debut leading the charge with around 560,000 sales. Originally, there was a rumour going around that the band had failed to sell even 30,000 copies of their debut upon its initial release. But in actuality, they beat that, selling over 50,000 by 1969.
The Stooges couldn’t even boast that. During the band’s initial formation and release of their first albums, each and every one was a commercial flop. They were the type of group people wanted to witness, not so much listen to. In their heyday, they didn’t even fall over half of a million records and so lagged behind Reed and co on all marks.
