Song of the Day 4/27: The Velvet Underground, “Sunday Morning”

This first track on the first album by the Velvet Underground couldn’t be more misleading – with its full production it sounds nothing like the rest of that seminal LP. It was written for Nico by Lou Reed and John Cale with the singles market in mind, but when it came time to record it Reed took the lead vocal. He sounds nothing like he usually does either. The single went nowhere, so no harm done.

Though the music sounds sweet (the celeste was Cale’s idea) the song came about when svengali Andy Warhol suggested Reed make it about paranoia, which is where the line “watch out, the world’s behind you … it’s nothing at all” came from.

Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs covered it on their first collaboration as Sid and Susie.