The Velvet Underground 
Variations: The Velvet Underground & Nico.
The best album credited to The Velvet Underground is The Velvet Underground which is ranked number 92 in the overall greatest album chart with a total rank score of 14,557.
The best album credited to The Velvet Underground taking into account any aliases or variations is The Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet Underground & Nico which is ranked number 10 in the overall greatest album chart with a total rank score of 48,964.
The Velvet Underground is ranked number 9 in the overall artist rankings with a total rank score of 83,110 (this takes into account any aliases or variations).
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- Lou Reed
- John Cale
- Moe Tucker
- Doug Yule
- See also:
- John Zorn / Lou Reed / Laurie Anderson
- The Velvet Underground & Nico
- Lou Reed & John Cale
- Brian Eno & John Cale
- Lou Reed & Metallica
- Ayers, Cale, Nico, Eno
- Lou Reed / John Cale / Nico
- John Cale & Terry Riley
- John Cale / Bob Neuwirth
- Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground
- Artists United Against Apartheid
- Zeitkratzer / Lou Reed
- American Flyer
- John Cale / Tony Conrad / Angus MacLise / La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela
- Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio
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Listen to The Velvet Underground on YouTube
The Velvet Underground best albums
The following albums by The Velvet Underground are ranked highest in the greatest album charts:
349
This may not be a complete discography for The Velvet Underground.This listing only shows those albums by this artist that appear in at least one chart on this site. If an album is 'missing' that you think deserves to be here, you can include it in your own chart from the My Charts page!
The Velvet Underground bestography composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
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| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 3 | 0% | |
| 1970s | 7 | 0% | |
| 1980s | 3 | 0% | |
| 1990s | 2 | 0% | |
| 2000s | 2 | 0% | |
| 2010s | 1 | 0% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
The Velvet Underground best tracks
Include tracks from compilations & live albums | Exclude tracks from compilations & live albums The same track can appear on multiple albums, so excluding tracks from compilations and live albums helps to remove duplicates from this list.
The Velvet Underground ratings
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this artist. | Show all 431 ratings for this artist.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Artist ratings | Avg. artist rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
80/100  | 09/22/2023 16:50 | Stevo796 | | 74/100 |
55/100 | 08/22/2023 21:23 |  Norshammar | | 86/100 |
90/100 | 08/02/2023 10:48 | HPumphrey | | 86/100 |
95/100 | 05/15/2023 20:11 | jtc91 | | 78/100 |
80/100 | 04/16/2023 08:24 |  melisandre | | 86/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some artists can have several thousand ratings)
This artist is rated in the top 1% of all artists on BestEverAlbums.com. This artist has a Bayesian average rating of 88.5/100, a mean average of 87.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 88.8/100. The standard deviation for this artist is 15.4.
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The Velvet Underground favourites
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The Velvet Underground comments
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indieshins 06/02/2022 07:19
One of the greatest bands of all time. They are more groundbreaking in some ways than The Beatles - but The Beatles have the edge because they had popularity along with their innovations. Still - the influence of the VU cannot be overstated. They have a perfect discography, if you discount Squeeze (which I admittedly haven't heard). Their debut is a perfect summation of all their strengths, merging their skills at experimental music, raw, punky rock and roll, and sweet ballads. White Light/White Heat is one of the most foreboding slabs of noise ever - easily their least accessible album. Their self-titled third album finds the band in singer-songwriter mode, crafting a collection of intimate ballads, interspersed with some rocking tracks and a weird experimental spoken-word piece (The Murder Mystery). Loaded, their major label debut (and their final album), was their big pop moment, their most accessible album by far, though still suitably weird and fascinated by the downtrodden - this is Lou Reed, after all. Every one of them a masterpiece. Inspirational!
sszwalbenest 02/15/2022 22:31
Of course, you have to give them credit for two amazing records to start, but everything after "White Light/White Heat" is barely listenable for me. It is clear that John Cale made this group.
Oh my, talk about influential.
Great Band
People like this band just because they want to seem cool....
So far ahead of their time. Influential to so many genres of music. All four of their records are classic.
teague 07/06/2020 21:21
Has there ever been such a band that expanded the rock mythos so vastly in four years?
StefanR10 06/13/2020 17:36
Lou Reed at his best The velvet underground’s first album is immense for me a band wo influenced many band after them.
zwiebel 09/17/2019 11:07
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I like to think of VU's discography as a weekend of debauchery...
- TVU & Nico is Friday night. You're done work for the week, and it's time for the party to begin.
- White Light/White Heat is Saturday night. The party is still going, but there are a lot more drugs being passed around, and things are really getting out of control.
- TVU is the Sunday morning hangover, and the time of reflection.
- Loaded is Monday morning. The weekend is over, you've sobered up, and it's time to get back to work.
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