Why did The Velvet Underground sell so few records?
According to rock lore, ambient Svengali Brian Eno once remarked on The Velvet Underground’s 1967 debut LP that “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band”.
It’s a quote that fuels the avant-garde mavericks’ mythos nicely. A romantic tale of dissident decadents scoring street-level lyrical snapshots of New York’s urban underworld, unloved and misunderstood upon release but celebrated ten years later by the punks as a spiritual successor to the movement’s belligerent unorthodoxy.
Embellished from an original quote in 1982, Eno had actually told the Los Angeles Times: “I was talking to Lou Reed the other day and he said that the first Velvet Underground record sold 30,000 copies in the first few years. The sales have picked up a bit in recent years, but nonetheless, that record was such an important one for so many people! I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.”
It’s possibly an arbitrary number on Reed’s part, but it’s true that the seminal The Velvet Underground & Nico album sold less than Verve label expectations. Dropped in spring just as the summer of love was about to bloom across the nation and around the world, The Velvet Underground flashed a starkly acidic riposte to the peace and love idyll that scored the West Coast’s heady counterculture of the day, resulting in a confused and scant marketing campaign from Verve owners MGM yet to know how to promote the band effectively.
The Velvet Underground had plenty of alternative cache that pulled the band from completely operating in pop’s blind spot. Interest was garnered with Tom Wilson sharing production duties, boasting credits with huge names from Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, and The Mothers of Invention. Andy Warhol had pushed them to the zenith of New York’s art community under his managerial and creative direction, and Nico added a dash of European glamour, having already cut records in London and forged a reputation as a leading model in the fashion world. For a band yet to release an album, The Velvet Underground was in good company.
Difficult marketing and scant commercial radio play had an impact, despite The Velvet Underground’s stature in the arts world, entering the charts at a measly 199 on the Billboard 200 and peaking at 182 in December 1967 after the record had been withdrawn for several months. It’s unlikely that the first record only sold 30,000, however.
According to research unearthed by journalist Richie Unterberger, an MGM royalty statement details sales of 58,476 through to February 1969, and was deemed essential enough by the label to be issued 23 times in 1967 alone.
The similarly abrasive White Light/White Heat would follow in 1968, but after John Cale’s departure later that year, Reed would steer the band in an infinitely more accessible direction, smattering 1969’s eponymous third LP and 1970’s Loaded with a keenly affectionate rock and roll and folk balladry that would aim to please the charts and give pointers to his glowing solo career around the corner.
By the end of the decade, The Velvet Underground had played the Toronto Pop Festival ‘69, shared billing with Grateful Dead, and was fast becoming a major presence in the day’s music press in both America and the UK. Nonetheless, Reed’s last two efforts with the band failed to chart, accelerating their demise and the strange case of Doug Yule’s Squeeze album.
So, a sight better than 30,000 Eno has helped push into rock wisdom, but still a modest amount that underwhelmed all concerned. Time would turn commercial favour around, however. Before long, Mick Jagger was claiming that The Rolling Stones’ ‘Stray Cat Blues’ borrowed from The Velvet Underground’s ‘Heroin’, and David Bowie would introduce ‘White Light/White Heat’ to a generation of glam kids during his Ziggy Stardust era.
Years later, The Velvet Underground & Nico would finally reach Platinum in 2013 with 300,000 copies sold off the back of its lauded legacy in rock and pop’s canon.
