The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Velvet Underground & Nico is the debut studio album by the American rock band the Velvet Underground and the German singer Nico. Released by Verve Records in March 1967, the album underperformed in sales and polarized critics upon release due to its abrasive, unconventional sound and controversial lyrical content. It later became regarded as one of the most influential albums in rock and pop music and one of the greatest albums of all time.

The Velvet Underground & Nico was recorded in 1966 while the band were featured on Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable tour. Warhol, who designed the album's record sleeve, served as co-producer alongside Tom Wilson. The album features elements of avant-garde music incorporated into brash, minimal and groove-driven rock music. Lead singer and songwriter Lou Reed delivers explicit lyrics spanning themes of drug abuse, prostitution, sadomasochism and urban life. Characterized as "the original art-rock record", it was a major influence on many subgenres of rock and alternative music, including punk, garage rock, krautrock, post-punk, post-rock, noise rock, shoegaze, gothic rock, and indie rock. In 1982, the English musician Brian Eno quipped that while the album only sold approximately 30,000 copies in its first five years, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band".

The Velvet Underground & Nico has been included on several all-time lists, including that of Apple Music and Rolling Stone. In 2006, it was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".