VU (album)

When the Velvet Underground moved from Verve Records (who had released their first two albums) to parent company, MGM Records, they signed a two-album deal, releasing their third and eponymous album The Velvet Underground in March 1969. Later that same year there was a management change and MGM Records' new CEO, Mike Curb, was brought in to try to rescue the financially struggling label. He decided to purge the record company of its unprofitable acts. The Velvet Underground quickly became one of the groups targeted and were released from their contract. The band had in the meantime recorded 14 tracks for possible release as their second MGM album. All of these were shelved and forgotten by their record company until the early 1980s.

As Verve (by then an imprint of Polygram) prepared to re-release the band's three Verve/MGM albums on vinyl and CD, they found nineteen previously unreleased tracks: five Cale-era tracks and the 14 "lost album" tracks, some of them in two-track mixdown format, some of them even on multitracks. The cream of the nineteen tracks was released in 1985 as VU; the rest was released as Another View in 1986.

VU is a selection from the 1969 tracks as well as two previously unreleased Cale-era songs—"Temptation Inside Your Heart" and "Stephanie Says". Since most of the material was available on multitrack (only "Ocean" is included in its original 1969 mix), engineers were able to clean up and remix the tracks.

As the Velvet Underground moved from MGM to Atlantic, they re-recorded two of the songs on VU, "Ocean" and "I'm Sticking with You", for possible inclusion on Loaded. Neither made the cut, but six of the VU songs were recycled by Lou Reed during his solo career: "I Can't Stand It", "Lisa Says" and "Ocean" on Lou Reed, 1972; "Andy's Chest" on Transformer, 1972; "Stephanie Says" (as "Caroline Says II") on Berlin, 1973; and "She's My Best Friend" (which was originally sung by Doug Yule), was featured on Coney Island Baby, 1976.

VU peaked in the US at #85, the band's best placing.

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
Robert Christgau	(A) link
Rolling Stone	March 1985

Track listing

All tracks written by Lou Reed except where noted.

Side one
No.	Title	Recording date	Length
1.	"I Can't Stand It"	May 20, 1969	3:21
2.	"Stephanie Says"	February 13, 1968	2:49
3.	"She's My Best Friend"	May 14, 1969	2:47
4.	"Lisa Says"	October 1, 1969	2:53
5.	"Ocean"	June 19, 1969	5:10

Side two
No.	Title	...	Length
6.	"Foggy Notion*" (Reed, Sterling Morrison, Doug Yule, Maureen Tucker, Hy Weiss)	May 6, 1969	6:41
7.	"Temptation Inside Your Heart"	February 14, 1968	2:30
8.	"One of These Days"	September 23, 1969	3:50
9.	"Andy's Chest"	May 13, 1969	2:49
10.	"I'm Sticking with You"	May 13, 1969	2:26

*The CD issue of VU omits the first few seconds of "Foggy Notion", which includes a practice guitar lick and the band members talking.

All tracks appear on the box set Peel Slowly and See, except "She's My Best Friend", "Ocean" and "Andy's Chest". "Ocean" on Peel Slowly and See is a later version, recorded during the Loaded sessions April – June, 1970.

Personnel

The Velvet Underground

John Cale – viola, celesta and backing vocals on "Stephanie Says", bass guitar on "Temptation Inside Your Heart"
Sterling Morrison – guitar, backing vocals
Lou Reed – vocals, guitar
Maureen Tucker – percussion, lead vocals on "I'm Sticking with You"
Doug Yule – bass guitar, keyboards, lead vocals on "She's My Best Friend", backing vocals on "I Can't Stand It", "Lisa Says", "Foggy Notion", "One of These Days", "Andy's Chest", piano and backing vocals on "I'm Sticking with You", lead guitar on "One of These Days"

Technical staff

The Velvet Underground – producers
Gary Kellgren – engineer
Bill Levenson – compilation executive producer
J. C. Convertino – compilation engineer

The Velvet Underground

John Cale Lou Reed Sterling Morrison Maureen Tucker Doug Yule Willie Alexander Angus MacLise Nico Walter Powers Billy Yule

Studio albums	The Velvet Underground & Nico White Light/White Heat The Velvet Underground Loaded Squeeze

Live albums	Live at Max's Kansas City 1969: The Velvet Underground Live Live MCMXCIII Final V.U. 1971–1973 The Quine Tapes

Box sets and out-takes	VU Another View Peel Slowly and See

Compilations	Andy Warhol's Velvet Underground Featuring Nico The Best of The Velvet Underground: Words and Music of Lou Reed The Best of Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground The Best of The Velvet Underground: The Millennium Collection The Very Best of the Velvet Underground Gold

Songs	"After Hours" "All Tomorrow's Parties" "European Son" "Femme Fatale" "Here She Comes Now" "Heroin" "I Heard Her Call My Name" "I'll Be Your Mirror" "I'm Waiting for the Man" "Lady Godiva's Operation" "New Age" "Pale Blue Eyes" "Rock & Roll" "Run Run Run" "Sister Ray" "Stephanie Says" "Sunday Morning" "Sweet Jane" "The Black Angel's Death Song" "The Gift" "There She Goes Again" "Venus in Furs" "White Light/White Heat"

Tribute albums	Heaven & Hell Fifteen Minutes

Related articles	Discography Songs A Symphony of Sound Walter De Maria Exploding Plastic Inevitable Steve Sesnick Andy Warhol Tom Wilson Songs for Drella

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