Crosby Stills Nash Young: Top 100 Songs

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Top 100 Songs

This page celebrates the 100 best works, collectively, from David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham, Nash, and Neil Young. Crosby, Stills, & Nash came together as a folk-rock trio in 1969. They were considered a supergroup given their pedegrees in previous groups. Crosby had been in the Byrds (1964-67, 1973, 1990), Stills in Buffalo Springfield (1966-68), and Nash in the Hollies (1962-68, 1981-83). On some of their albums, they were joined by Stills’ Buffalo Springfield bandmate Neil Young. Stills also formed the group Manassas (1971-73). For a complete list of this act’s DMDB honors, check out the DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry. Click here to see other acts’ best-of lists. Spotify Podcast: Check out the podcast Remembering David Crosby, 1941-2023, based on this list. Debut: January 24, 2023, at 7pm CST. New episodes based on Dave’s Music Database lists are posted every Tuesday at 7pm CST.

Awards (CSN): Awards (Buffalo Springfield): Awards (Young):

Top 100 Songs Dave’s Music Database lists are determined by song’s appearances on best-of lists, appearances on compilations and live albums by the featured act, and songs’ chart success, sales, radio airplay, streaming, and awards. This list includes songs from Crosby, Stills & Nash; Crosby, Still, Nash & Young; Buffalo Springfield (which included Stills and Young as members), and the solo work of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young. DMDB Top 1%: 1. For What It’s Worth (Buffalo Springfield, 1966) 2. Heart of Gold (Neil Young, 1972) 3. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (CSN, 1969) DMDB Top 2%: 4. Ohio (CSNY, 1970) 5. Rockin’ in the Free World (Young, 1989) 6. Teach Your Children (CSNY, 1970) 7. Cinnamon Girl (Young, 1969) 8. Love the One You’re With (Stills, 1970) 9. Our House (CSNY, 1970) DMDB Top 5%: 10. Woodstock (CSNY, 1970) 11. Old Man (Young, 1972) 12. Harvest Moon (Young, 1992) 13. Marrakesh Express (CSN, 1969) 14. Southern Cross (CSN, 1982) 15. Southern Man (Young, 1970) 16. My My Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) (Young, 1979) 17. Helplessly Hoping (CSNY, 1969) 18. Mr. Soul (Buffalo Springfield, 1967) 19. Wooden Ships (CSN, 1969) DMDB Top 10%: 20. The Needle and the Damage Done (Young, 1972) 21. Down by the River (Young, 1969) 22. Expecting to Fly (Buffalo Springfield, 1967) 23. Helpless (CSNY, 1970) 24. Just a Song Before I Go (CSN, 1977) 25. After the Gold Rush (Young, 1970) 26. Like a Hurricane (Young, 1977) 27. Wasted on the Way (CSN, 1982) 28. Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Young, 1970) 29. Cowgirl in the Sand (Young, 1969) 30. Hero (Crosby with Phil Collins, 1993) 31. Cortez the Killer (Young, 1975) DMDB Top 20%: 32. Carry On (CSNY, 1970) 33. Hey Hey My My (Into the Black) (Young, 1979) 34. Long Time Gone (CSN, 1969) 35. Rock and Roll Woman (Buffalo Springfield, 1967) 36. War Games (CSN, 1983) 37. Bluebird (Buffalo Springfield, 1967) 38. Almost Cut My Hair (CSNY, 1970) 39. Philadelphia (Young, 1994) 40. American Dream (CSNY, 1988) 41. Sugar Mountain (Young, 1968) 42. Are You Ready for the Country? (Young, 1972) 43. Immigration Man (Crosby/Nash, 1972) 44. Got It Made (CSNY, 1988) 45. Broken Arrow (Buffalo Springfield, 1967) 46. Chicago (Nash, 1971) 47. Déjà Vu (CSNY, 1970) 48. Change Partners (Stills, 1971) 49. Carry Me (Crosby/Nash, 1975) 50. Guinnevere (CSN, 1969) 51. Long May You Run (Stills/Young, 1976) 52. Shadow Captain (CSN, 1977) 53. Blackbird (CSNY, 1969) 54. Fair Game (CSN, 1977) 55. You Don’t Have to Cry (CSN, 1969) 56. Dark Star (CSN, 1977) 57. Military Madness (Nash, 1971) 58. Find the Cost of Freedom (CSNY, 1970) 59. Tonight’s the Night (Young, 1973) 60. Southbound Train (Crosby & Nash, 1972) 61. No Tears Left (CSNY, 1999) 62. A Man Needs a Maid (Young, 1972) 63. War of Man (Young, 1992) 64. 4 + 20 (CSNY, 1970) 65. This Note’s for You (Young, 1988) 66. In My Life (CSNY, 1994) 67. Live It Up (CSN, 1990) 68. Powderfinger (Young, 1979) DMDB Beyond the Top 20%: 69. Turn Back the Pages (Stills, 1975) 70. Music is Love (Crosby, 1971) 71. Drive My Car (Crosby, 1989) 72. Sit Yourself Down (Stills, 1970) 73. Four Strong Winds (Young, 1978) 74. Long Walk Home (Young, 1987) 75. Marianne (Stills, 1971) 76. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Young, 1969) 77. Sit Yourself Down (Stills, 1970) 78. This Old House (CSNY, 1988) 79. When You Dance I Can Really Love (Young, 1970) 80. I Am a Child (Buffalo Springfield, 1968) 81. Southern Pacific (Young, 1981) 82. It Doesn’t Matter (Manassas, 1972) 83. Cathedral (CSN, 1977) 84. Innocent Eyes (Nash, 1986) 85. We Can Change the World (Nash, 1971) 86. War Song (Young/Nash, 1972) 87. Change Your Mind (Young, 1994) 88. Walk On (Young, 1974) 89. Isn’t It About Time (Manassas, 1973) 90. Ten Men Workin’ (Young, 1988) 91. Downtown (Young, 1995) 92. That Girl (CSNY, 1988) 93. Love is a Rose (Young, 1974) 94. Too Much Love to Hide (CSN, 1982) 95. Unknown Legend (Young, 1992) 96. Johnny’s Garden (Manassas, 1972) 97. No More (Young, 1989) 98. On the Way Home (Buffalo Springfield, 1968) 99. Dear Mr. Fantasy (Stills/Nash, 1980) 100. A Child’s Claim to Fame (Buffalo Springfield, 1967) Resources and Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: “Acts’ Profile Pages and Best-of Lists” Profile Pages: First posted 1/20/2023; last updated 3/22/2026.

The Top 100 Blues Acts of All Time

Blues: Top 100 Acts

These are the top 100 blues acts of all time as determined by aggregating 50 best-of lists focused on blues artists. Click on names to see their entries in the Dave’s Music Database Music Makers Encyclopedia. See other lists of Acts/Music Makers by Genre. 1. Robert Johnson 2. Muddy Waters 3. B.B. King 4. Howlin’ Wolf 5. John Lee Hooker 6. Stevie Ray Vaughan 7. Albert King 8. Buddy Guy 9. Eric Clapton 10. Bessie Smith Robert Johnson 11. T-Bone Walker 12. Leadbelly 13. Son House 14. Lightnin’ Hopkins 15. Freddie King 16. Etta James 17. Elmore James 18. Jimi Hendrix 19. Willie Dixon 20. Ma Rainey Muddy Waters 21. Jimmy Reed 22. Ray Charles 23. Blind Lemon Jefferson 24. Johnny Winter 25. Big Mama Thornton 26. John Mayall 27. Charley Patton 28. Big Bill Broonzy 29. Koko Taylor 30. Little Walter John Lee Hooker 31. Billie Holiday 32. Skip James 33. Sister Rosetta Tharpe 34. Albert Collins 35. Mississippi John Hurt 36. Bonnie Raitt 37. Otis Rush 38. Janis Joplin 39. Joe Bonamassa 40. Lonnie Johnson Howlin’ Wolf 41. W.C. Handy 42. Mamie Smith 43. Taj Mahal 44. Memphis Minnie 45. Bobby “Blue” Bland 46. Sonny Boy Williamson #2 (Rice Miller) 47. Rory Gallagher 48. Peter Green 49. Louis Jordan 50. Reverend Gary Davis B.B. King 51. Sonny Boy Williamson #1 (John Lee Williamson) 52. Robert Cray 53. Paul Butterfield 54. Blind Willie Johnson 55. Big Joe Turner 56. Magic Sam 57. Blind Willie McTell 58. Bukka White 59. Junior Wells 60. Tampa Red Son House 61. Professor Longhair 62. Tommy Johnson 63. Otis Spann 64. Slim Harpo 65. Charles Brown 66. Ruth Brown 67. R.L. Burnside 68. Chuck Berry 69. Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup 70. Mike Bloomfield Stevie Ray Vaughan 71. Mississippi Fred McDowell 72. Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown 73. Brownie McGhee 74. Roosevelt Sykes 75. Luther Allison 76. Blind Boy Fuller 77. Leroy Carr 78. Victoria Spivey 79. Big Joe Williams 80. Little Milton Bessie Smith 81. Arthur “Blind Blake” Phelps 82. J.B. Lenoir 83. Gary Moore 84. Duane Allman 85. John Mayer 86. Keb’ Mo’ 87. Wynonie Harris 88. Robert Nighthawk 89. Ida Cox 90. Bo Diddley Leadbelly 91. Son Seals 92. Hound Dog Taylor 93. Sonny Terry 94. J.B. Hutto 95. Susan Tedeschi 96. Shemekia Copeland 97. Roy Buchanan 98. Dinah Washington 99. Gus Cannon 100. Fats Domino Buddy Guy Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: Lists of Acts/Music Makers by Genre Dave’s Music Database: Top 50 Blues Albums of All Time Dave’s Music Database: Top 100 Blues Songs of All Time First posted 7/16/2011; last updated 3/16/2026.

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Alternative Rock: Top 100 Acts

Alternative Rock: Top 100 Acts

Alternative rock is one of the most difficult genres to define. It emerged most prominently in the 1990s in the wake of the grunge movement and the subsequent embracing of more rock-oriented acts. The alternative rock genre can be traced to the beginnings of experimental rock in the 1960s with the Velvet Underground and the 1970s with David Bowie. By the end of the decade, punk (Sex Pistols, Ramones, The Clash) created an audience for more left-of-center music. While it was more guitar-driven, the synthesizer-driven new wave (Elvis Costello, The Police, The Cars, Duran Duran) movement also gained attention. By the early ‘80s, college radio (R.E.M., U2, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Simple Minds) launched multiple acts into the mainstream while also embracing an array of British artists who gained little attention otherwise in the U.S. (The Smiths, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Jesus & Mary Chain). In the ‘90s, the explosion of grunge (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains) gave voice to more guitar-oriented rock that was, at the very least, grunge-adjacent (Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, the Offspring) and fairly mainstream rock (Dave Matthews Band, Weezer, Foo Fighters). The UK responded with Britpop (Oasis, Blur, Manic Street Preachers) and more experimental rock (Radiohead). The 21st century saw emo rock (Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, My Chemical Romance), garage rock revival (The White Stripes, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys), and more folk-rock/Americana-driven acts (Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers) become successful. In addition, a wave of left-of-mainstream acts (Death Cab for Cutie, Vampire Weekend, Cage the Elephant) arose as well. This list was created by aggregating nearly 50 lists focused on alternative rock. Those acts featured on 6 or more lists were then re-ordered by overall status in Dave’s Music Database. See other lists of Acts/Music Makers by Genre. 1. David Bowie 2. The Police / Sting 3. U2 4. Velvet Underground / Lou Reed 5. R.E.M. 6. The Smiths / Morrissey 7. Nirvana 8. Radiohead 9. Pearl Jam 10. Elvis Costello 11. The Clash 12. Joy Division / New Order 13. Red Hot Chili Peppers 14. The Cure 15. Oasis 16. Green Day 17. Coldplay 18. Sex Pistols / Public Image Ltd. 19. Roxy Music / Bryan Ferry 20. Talking Heads 21. Beastie Boys 22. Blondie 23. Depeche Mode 24. Ramones 25. Tears for Fears 26. Alanis Morissette 27. Foo Fighters 28. Beck 29. Simple Minds 30. Smashing Pumpkins 31. The White Stripes 32. INXS 33. Pixies 34. Patti Smith 35. Duran Duran 36. The Cars 37. Blur 38. Dave Matthews Band 39. Arctic Monkeys 40. Pretenders 41. Nine Inch Nails 42. Sinéad O’Connor 43. The Jam / Paul Weller 44. Imagine Dragons 45. Alice in Chains 46. Sonic Youth 47. Kate Bush 48. Weezer 49. Arcade Fire 50. Soundgarden 51. The Strokes 52. Nick Cave 53. Kings of Leon 54. Stone Temple Pilots 55. Muse 56. The Replacements 57. PJ Harvey 58. Rage Against the Machine 59. The Stone Roses 60. Björk 61. Live 62. The Black Keys 63. Manic Street Preachers 64. Wilco 65. Violent Femmes 66. Linkin Park 67. The B-52’s 68. Mumford & Sons 69. The Killers 70. Hüsker Dü / Bob Mould 71. Goo Goo Dolls 72. Fall Out Boy 73. Gorillaz 74. Twenty One Pilots 75. Queens of the Stone Age 76. Jane’s Addiction 77. Bush 78. Counting Crows 79. Blink-182 80. XTC 81. The Cranberries 82. The Offspring 83. Franz Ferdinand 84. Tool 85. No Doubt 86. Faith No More 87. Florence + the Machine 88. Echo & the Bunnymen 89. Siouxsie & the Banshees 90. Vampire Weekend 91. The Lumineers 92. Garbage 93. 3 Doors Down 94. Television 95. The Jesus & Mary Chain 96. Death Cab for Cutie 97. Cage the Elephant 98. Panic! At the Disco 99. The Flaming Lips 100. Modest Mouse Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: Lists of Acts/Music Makers by Genre Dave’s Music Database: The Top 100 Alternative Rock Albums Dave’s Music Database: The Top 100 Alternative Rock Songs First posted 9/8/2017; last updated 3/14/2026.

 

Today in Music (1967): The Velvet Underground released their debut album

Velvet Underground & Nico Velvet Underground & Nico

Released: March 12, 1967 Charted: May 13, 1967 Peak: 129 US, 43 UK Sales (in millions): 0.56 US, 0.3 UK, 0.96 world (includes US and UK) Genre: proto-punk rock

Tracks: Click on a song title for more details. Sunday Morning [2:56] I’m Waiting for the Man [4:39 Femme Fatale [2:38] Venus in Furs [5:12] Run, Run, Run [4:22] All Tomorrow’s Parties [6:00] Heroin [7:12] There She Goes Again [2:41] I’ll Be Your Mirror [2:14] The Black Angel’s Death Song [3:11] European Son [7:46] Total Running Time: 47:51 The Players: Lou Reed (vocals, guitar) John Cale (electric viola, piano, bass guitar) Sterling Morrison (guitar) Maureen “Moe” Tucker (drums, percussion) Nico (vocals) Spotify Podcast: Check out Dave’s Music Database podcast: Covering Velvet Underground & Nico. It premiered September 28, 2021.

Rating: 4.541 out of 5.00 (average of 37 ratings) Quotable: “Glam, punk, new wave, goth, noise, and nearly every other left-of-center rock movement owes an audible debt to this set.” - Mark Deming, AllMusic.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album “Brewed in New York's seedy alleys and Andy Warhol's wild Pop-art Factory scene, VU's lyrically unforgiving, sonically mesmerizing debut all but invented the concept of alternative music.” EW’12 Their debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, only sold a few thousand copies in its first year, CS but producer Brian Eno famously said “everyone who bought one went out and started a band.” JD One “could just as easily say that every song on their epochal 1967 debut…started a musical genre.” CM “”These 11 songs stretch so far that we now take them for granted.” CM The album “bristled with a kind of satanic glee, mixed with the droning ballads that typify an early morning drug haze mixed with post-cabaret desultoriness.” JSH “The record is explicit and rough, unflinching and chaotic as it held a mirror to life in New York City during the late ’60s.” CQ The album was “so far ahead of its time that most people who came across the band or this release rejected them with explicit antagonism (radio stations banned it from the airwaves, magazines rejected ads for it, stores refused to stock it).” CM The Velvet Underground were “influential, hypnotically intense, misogynistic, and ruthlessly cool, they were scarier than the Rolling Stones and the Doors put together. Lou Reed introduced himself as the anti-Dylan, celebrating narcotic absorption and loveless sex with a brutal urban vision.” VB Chapter One of Alternative Rock Indeed, “one would be hard pressed to name a rock album whose influence has been as broad and pervasive as The Velvet Underground and Nico.” AM It was “simultaneously prepunk and postmodern.” CS In 1970, the New York Times said the Velvets were “playing experimental rock in 1965 when the Beatles just wanted to hold your hand and San Francisco was still the place where Tony Bennett left his heart.” CS This is “chapter one of alternative rock” BL “with nearly every band emerging as part of that modern scene taking their cues from this record.” CQ “Glam, punk, new wave, goth, noise, and nearly every other left-of-center rock movement owes an audible debt to this set.” AM “Referring to their sway over the rock music of the ‘70s and ‘80s, critic Lester Bangs stated, ‘Modern music starts with the Velvets, and the implications and influence of what they did seem to go on forever.’” NRR “Rock just means songs that are played w/ bass, guitar, drums and vocals w/ maybe a few exotic embellishments, so it ties in easily with the loft scene where artists tend to dwell…But it wasn’t always so—‘rock’ (or pop) music had to move into the galleries, and it was on the wings of this group.” JSH “The Velvets made rock & roll a dangerous place” BL and became “the poster children of the avant-garde.” TL Radical Themes and Radical Music “At the time of its release, it was art rock at its finest; however, that’s all it was. Topics such as prostitution, drug abuse, and living in the squalor of NYC were so isolating that no one really knew about it – or cared to, for that matter.” CQ They took their “band name from a book about S&M” TL and, at the time, “Lou Reed’s lyrical exploration of drugs and kinky sex” AM was “risky stuff in film and literature, let alone ‘teen music.’” AM Even though the content “received the most press attention, …the music [they] played was as radical as the words they accompanied.” AM It “is amazingly complex and sophisticated, deserving of a place beside contemporary masterpieces such as Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” JD Such classic status is due in part to the VU’s “reputation for inspiring generations of noise rockers,” RV but also because they created an album that “has gentle melodies juxtaposed against the harsher tunes.” RV The music combined “crunchy rock, rhythm and blues, free jazz, and avant-garde experimentation.” CS While they have become known as “defiant anti-commercial revolutionaries, the Velvets were well aware of AM radio” JD and crafted songs to fit “demands at the time, though there is usually some twist to the standard formula.” JD The Band Members “Although they weren’t particularly adept at their instruments, they had a reputation as a fiery and dissonant live band” NO and “created some of the most innovative sounds anyone had ever heard.” NO Of course, Lou Reed, as the band’s lead singer and guitarist, has become an iconic figure, but this was hardly just a Reed & Co. affair. Reed, “a rebellious Jewish kid from Long Island,” CM was a fan of Bob Dylan, “but most of his lyrical influences were writers and poets.” CM John Cale was “a Welsh prodigy who had arrived in New York City on a classical music scholarship.” CM He was “tutored by ambient composer John Cage” TL and “introduced the rock world to feedback through his shrieking” TL “hard-edged electric viola.” NRR Reed and Cale met through Pickwick Records in 1964 where Reed worked as what he called “a poor man’s Carole King.” CM “Percussionist Maureen Tucker and guitarist Sterling Morrison make additional noteworthy contributions” NRR to what became the Velvets’ first album. Tucker notably “played primitive rhythms on a minimally sized kit while standing up.” CM Cale said, “We were trying to do a Phil Spector thing with as few instruments as possible.” CM Nico “Nico, the possibly German, possibly Hungarian model turned actress turned singer” TL was pushed on to the group by artist Andy Warhol, who would champion the band. “There’s a deceptive beauty to her contributions, a thorny languor.” CM Her “otherworldly vocals” NRR add “mystery to…[the] fragile and beautiful songs that she sings ‘in perfect mellow ovals, like a cello getting up in the morning,’ to quote critic Richard Goldstein” JD “While the significance of [her] contributions have been debated over the years, she meshes with the band’s outlook in that she hardly sounds like a typical rock vocalist.” AM She wasn’t “a conventionally beautiful singer by any means, her range was quite narrow, but she was very effective in getting emotions across.” AD Andy Warhol Warhol saw the Velvet Underground “as a musical extension of his creative philosophy of making people uncomfortable.” CM He tapped the group “as a traveling band for his Exploding Plastic Inevitable art exhibition. When he realized the brilliance of the Velvet’s music” he decided to back them in recording their first album. RV He “did little to earn his producer’s credit besides contributing the famous banana for the album cover;” JD he was more the “band’s benefactor and spiritual guru.” CS Tom Wilson did the real heavy lifting when it came to recording and producing the album. He “had previously worked with Bob Dylan and Frank Zappa, so the strangeness of The Velvet Underground wasn’t too likely to freak him out.” AD However, even if Warhol’s “presence…was primarily a matter of signing the checks, his notoriety allowed The Velvet Underground to record their material without compromise, which would have been impossible under most other circumstances.” AM Signing and Recording Such a bizarre record had trouble finding a home. After getting rejected by “most of the era’s leading rock labels,” CM including Atlantic and Elektra the band were signed to the minor label Verve, which was owned by MGM. Tom Wilson, a newly recruited staff producer from Columbia, oversaw the re-recording of three tracks and the addition of “Sunday Morning” as a potential single. CM The album was then quietly released in March 1967. Final Thoughts “While Reed and Cale have both produced incredible bodies of work as solo artists, neither has ever topped the level of intensity that they reached while working together.” JD “Few rock albums are as important as The Velvet Underground and Nico, and fewer still have lost so little of their power to surprise and intrigue more than 30 years after first hitting the racks.” AM The album strikes “a balance between the polished beauty of great art and the raw spontaneity of great rock ‘n’ roll” JD “It was hipness on vinyl, but with an abiding narcotic beauty.” TL “The Velvet Underground broke the rules of pop music as rock’s most visionary performers. They plumbed the depths of chaos and noise and proved that rock, too, can be art.” RV Notes The deluxe edition includes the stereo and mono versions over two CDs but doesn’t offer any previously unreleased material. The first disc also “includes the five songs from Nico's first album, 1967's Chelsea Girl in which Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Nico were involved in the songwriting; disc two adds the 45 rpm single versions of “All Tomorrow's Parties,” “I'll Be Your Mirror,” “Sunday Morning,” and “Femme Fatale.” AM The Songs Here are thoughts on the album’s individual songs.

Sunday Morning Velvet Underground & Nico

Writer(s): Lou Reed, John Cale Released: December 1966 (single), Velvet Underground & Nico B-side: “Femme Fatale” Peak: 12 CO, 11 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 165.65 streaming About the Song: “Melodically, the songs can be divided between the short, catchy ‘pop’ tunes and the noisy, experimental ‘art’ songs.” JD Hence the Velvets “dipped their toes into dreamy pop” AM on “the calm and quiet” JD “Sunday Morning.” “The melody is childlike – baby in a cot being put to sleep in its simplicity.” AD “The music calls to mind a sleepy, quiet Sunday so perfectly that you can listen to the song repeatedly before registering what it’s really about: paranoia and displacement.” JH-93 The lyric, which “raises a question about the excesses of Saturday night,” JD “may be the root of the family tree of songs like ‘Every Breath You Take’…whose pretty, lulling melodies mask their true thematic darkness.” JH-93 Reed and Cale actually wrote the song on a Sunday morning after an all-nighter. The song was written because producer Tom Wilson thought the album lacked a single. The intent was for Nico to sing it, but when the band arrived at the studio, Reed announced that he was going to sing it because it was his song. JH: 94-5 Victor Bockris, author of Transformer: The Complete Lou Reed Story, said, “Lou then proceded to sing the song in a voice so full of womanly qualities that on first hearing it you paused, wondering just who the hell was singing.” VB-135

I’m Waiting for the Man Velvet Underground & Nico

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: October 1971 (single), Velvet Underground & Nico B-side: “There She Goes Again” Peak: 23 CL, 5 CO, 4 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 63.05 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: The “tough garage rock” AM of “Man” “shows Reed at an aesthetic high point, and the band in an especially creative and committed period of its development.” JH-98 The song is “a masterpiece of reportorial skill.” JH-96 It is worth noting that “Reed was a songwriter educated as a journalist and trained in part by a poet.” JH-122 On songs like “Man” he “portrayed edgy characters and exotic scenes that many in the ‘straight’ world and even enlightened hippies had never experienced.” JD His “lyrics paint gritty portraits of life in the city as his characters cope with deviant sex acts, drugs, hangovers, love lost and love regained.” RV The song is also important for how it reinvisions the guitar. “Listen to the scraping chords…for the absolute most malicious sounding warp of the whole Jimmy Reed guitar style, a chopping rhythmic hammer that predated Stooge-thrash and still sounded strangely jug-band ish in that whole sixties early-days-of-drugs approach.” JSH

Femme Fatale Velvet Underground & Nico

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: December 1966 (B-side of “Sunday Morning”), Velvet Underground & Nico Peak: 22 CO, 4 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 93.84 streaming About the Song: Andy Warhol suggest that Reed write a song about Edie Sedgwick, an actress and model who was a mainstay at Warhol’s Factory art studio. “By the time of the Velvets’ association with Warhol, Edie was ticking through the final seconds of her fifteen minutes.” JH-101 She died of a drug overdose a few years later in 1971. Reed’s song, which “plays like ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ set in hip Manhattan, except that in place of the voyeurism…Reed’s masterpiece tells a story of narcissism.” JH-99 Nico sang lead, whose “voice brought a Continental sophistication to the song that matched it subject.” JH-99

Venus in Furs Velvet Underground & Nico

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: 3/12/1994, Velvet Underground & Nico Peak: 24 CL, 9 CO, 71 UK, 7 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 54.22 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: Reed infuses that song and “Venus in Furs” “with lower east side realism and boho style.” TL This was reportedly Sterling Morrison’s favorite VU song, because “they had achieved in it, like no other track, the sound they had in mind.” JH-102 The song showcases how John Cale worked his viola into the band’s “rock-framework. The drums pound and echo, the guitars play simple little melodies. It’s an extraordinary sound they create here, utterly distinctive.” AD Lyrically, Reed “peered into the inner sanctum of a sado-masochistic couple as they made love.” JD Songs about S&M have never exactly been common, but in the mid-sixties “were truly bizarre.” JSH The song is “a fairly literal distillation of the 19th century romantic novel of the same name by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch,” JH-102 based in part on an incident in which he pledged himself as a slave for six months to writer Fanny Pistor, with the stiupation that she wore furs when disciplining him. JH-103

Run, Run, Run Velvet Underground & Nico

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: Velvet Underground & Nico Peak: 11 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 14.89 streaming About the Song: “On this album, only ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’ rocks as hard.” JH-106 The song “screeches and drives on skittish bluesy riffs.” CQ “Here, Sterling Morrison’s musical importance to the group is evident.” JH-107 He is “a floating center, in the songs and in the politics of the group…guiding musical and political energies using guitar riffs…affecting every aspect of the music…[He is] an indispensable glue for everything going on.” JH-107 The song explores four protagonists…of New York’s drug underworld.” JH-106 Reed wrote the song en route to a gig at the Café Bizarre when the band realized they were a little short on material. He scribbled words on the back of an envelope, finishing the song by the time the car reached its destination. JH-105

All Tomorrow’s Parties Velvet Underground & Nico

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: July 1966 (single), Velvet Underground & Nico B-side: “I’ll Be Your Mirror” Peak: 28 CL, 16 CO, 7 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 16.04 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: This song about “the decadent world of the rich and jaded” JD was reportedly Warhol’s favorite VU song, which isn’t surprising since Reed was inspired by “studying the regulars in Warhol’s clique.” JH-108 Reed considers it “a very apt description of certain people at the Factory at the time.” JH-108 He depicted the scene “with a degree of objectivity, if not outright sympathy, and with a poet’s ear for the perfectly chosen and most evocative language.” JD “John Cale shines on this song. Finding a simple…chord that could be cycle repeatedly despite changes in the underlying chord progression would become a signature component of his style.” JH-109 “The hammered piano bears an unmistakable aura of novelty and excitement.” JH-109 Cale and Reed’s styles often clashed. Cale said “I was trying to get something big and grand and Lou was fighting against that; he wanted pretty songs. I said ‘Let’s make them grand, pretty songs then.” JH-110 “If there ever was a grand, pretty song ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ is it.” JH-110

Heroin Velvet Underground & Nico

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: Velvet Underground & Nico Peak: 5 CL, 6 CO, 2 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 57.16 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: Sterling Morrison has said this is “possibly Reed’s greatest song” JH-111 and it is “often cited as…the band’s single greatest achievement in song form.” JH-111 It is “one of the most profoundly moving and disturbing songs, period.” JH-115 It is “rock’s first (and probably best) undisguised drug song.” JH-111 The band used it to “batter down the walls helming in rock lyricists.” JH-113 “and gave songwriters the freedom to write about real life.” JH-112 The song “addresses the drug experience in language that is crystal clear while surging waves of sound evoke the opiate high.” AD “Reed gives the listener a musical experience comparable to the rush a junky feels upon finding a register, pushing home the plunger and feeling the ecstatic, nirvana-inducing, consciousness-obliterating heroin rush.” RV “When Reed proclaims, ‘Heroin, be the death of me / Heroin, it’s my wife and it's my life,’ the effect is nothing less than chilling.” RV “Many people continue to wonder why someone would be drawn to a drug that can only ruin your life, but Reed understood its allure all too well. ‘When I’m rushing on my run, then I feel just like Jesus’ son,’ he sang.” JD “The music matches the lyrical content perfectly…It builds up into squealing noises but underneath the squeals the drums are beating and pounding…However, much noise is layered on the top, the drums and guitar hold the piece together.” AD “Ultimately, ‘Heroin’ is the microcosmic essence of everything that happens musically on The Velvet Underground and Nico – the tumultuous crush of guitar holocaust and viola screech, the skeletal-lullaby melody, the bold, punctuating shifts in rhythmic time and temper.” RV While some saw the song as advocating heroin use, Reed explained that the song “is very close to the feeling you get from smack…It’s deceptive. You think you’re enjoying it. But by the time it hits you, it’s too late…It comes at you harder and faster and keeps on coming. The song is everything that the real thing is doing to you.” VB-71

There She Goes Again Velvet Underground & Nico

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: October 1971 (B-side of “I’m Waiting for the Man”), Velvet Underground & Nico Peak: 45 CL, 38 CO, 14 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 16.28 streaming About the Song: The VU explored “stripped-down R&B” AM on “There She Goes Again,” which, “on the surface…is a simple rock rewrite of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Hitch Hike,’ but Reed portrays a brutal misogynist whose response to his lover’s actions is ‘better hit her!’” JD The song sports “beautiful and slightly daft harmonies, [as well as] a superlative Lou Reed vocal with superb stretching of words. Very Dylan influenced.” AD In his 33 1/3 book about the album, Joe Howard says this is the song “that has always amazed me the least,” JH-121 but also acknowledges that “the band sounds tight as hell on it.” JH-121 Considering “the thematic clarity sparkling through on the rest of these songs, and with the avant-garde edginess of the more obscure numbers…this one seems neither here nor there.” JH-122 The song has a detatchment that he finds unsettling and that it is difficult to figure out what is going on. “Street prostitution? Domestic violence? Women’s liberation versus male misogyny?” JH-122

I’ll Be Your Mirror Velvet Underground & Nico

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: July 1966 (B-side of “All Tomorrow’s Parties”), Velvet Underground & Nico Peak: 11 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 64.38 streaming About the Song: There is speculation that Reed wrote this “baroque melody that echoes its gentle lyrics” RV for “his one great love, Shelly Albin, [but] there’s not doubt that the lyrical impetus for the song came from Nico.” JH-126 The pair were in a relationship which Cale described as “both consummated and constipated.” JH-126 When she sings on it, she “truly made the song her own.” JH-128 She is “almost half speaking rather than singing. She is singing of course, coldly, seemingly emotionless, but the emotion comes through so crystal clear. Her voice is clearly an acquired taste, not for everyone.” AD She had a “combination of intelligence and empathy for Lou Reed’s lyrics.” JH-128 As Reed said, “when I gave Nico a song…she would totally understand what was being said and perform it from that standpoint.” JH-128

The Black Angel’s Death Song Velvet Underground & Nico

Writer(s): Lou Reed, John Cale Released: Velvet Underground & Nico Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 7.79 streaming About the Song: Of course, the Velvets weren’t just about Reed’s way with words. They “often experimented with alternate tunings” JH-129 and this was one of several songs “in which the guitars are downtuned a full step, creating a heavier sound.” JH-129 The song “skitters and snarls on the edge of electric eruption without ever quite getting there.” CM Cale restrung his viola with guiar and mandolin strings to create what he described as the sound of “a jet engine.” JH-130 “Cale and his electric viola go absolutely everywhere, most enjoyably…Nothing immediately approachable, although dig deeper, concentrate and listen, and what is that John Cale is playing? Melodies! Well, of sorts, anyway.” AD His contribution to the VU’s sound was “arguably greater than that of any other member.” JH-130 The more avant-garde noise experimentation wasn’t always well received. Sterling Morrison recalls the band getting fired for playing the song. When they performed it at their first gig, the owner told them at break to never play it again. The band opened the next set with it because, as Morrison said, “We just wanted to do whatever we wanted to do.” JH-131

European Son Velvet Underground & Nico

Writer(s): John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Lou Reed, Maureen Tucker Released: Velvet Underground & Nico Peak: 26 CO Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 6.33 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: This song offered “an indication to some extent of the way the group’s next album [White Light/White Heat] would go.” JD Because of its “lyrical sparseness” JH-132 Cale had “plenty of space…to apply some of the techniques of the avant-garde Fluxus movement which had originally drawn him to New York.” JH-133 “Among these was the idea that spontaneous noises, such as a passing car, were a natural part of the listening experience, hence part of the song.” JH-136 During recording, Cale scraped a chair across the floor and shattered a glass in front of a microphone. JD Reed and Morrison rose to the occasion with some inspired guitar chaos.” JH-133 “The waves of feedback and explosions of noise in” JD “the bracing discord of ‘European Son’” JD “convey the sheer exhilaration of unbridled destruction.” JD Cale said “the magic…was in the way the four musicians spontaneously interacted.” JD 33 1/3 author Joe Howard refers to it as “‘These Boots Are Made for Walking’ as a football chant for warrior droids of the future.” JH-135

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by Mark Deming AM AllMusic.com review by Richie Unterberger JSH Blastitude (2003). “A Loaded Proposition: Joe S. Harrington Picks the All-Time Top 100 Or…Who Pulled the Trigger?” by Joe S. Harrington BL Blender (10/08). “100 Greatest American Albums” CQ Consequence.net (9/12/2022). “The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time” CM Toby Creswell & Craig Mathieson (2012). 100 Best Albums of All Time. Hardie Grant Books. Pages 48-51. AD Adrian Denning JD Jim DeRogatis (2006). “The Great Albums” EW’12 Entertainment Weekly (9/27/2012). “Top 100 Albums” JH Joe Howard (2007). 33 1/3: The Velvet Underground and Nico. The Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc.: New York, NY. NRR National Recording Registry NO TheNightOwl.com review by Tim Hartin PM PasteMagazine.com (6/3/2024). “The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time” RV The Review (Oct./Nov. 2001). “The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time” by Clarke Speicher CS Chris Smith (2009). 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music. Oxford University Press. Pages 44-46. TL Time Magazine (11/13/2006). “All-TIME 100 Albums” by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light VB Vibe (Dec. 1999). “100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century,” pages 154-164. Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/23/2008; last updated 3/13/2026.