The Velvet Underground & Nico album art
Front cover of the mono version
Packaging for the seminal record by Velvet Underground & Nico, produced by Andy Warhol.
Andy’s signature stamp, set in Coronet Bold, on the front is probably distorted due to it being screenprinted.
On the front cover of the stereo version, the banana is positioned lower.
“◀︎ Peel slowly and see”
Cover with peeled back sticker, revealing a flesh-colored banana underneath
Back cover of the original 1967 pressing. From Wikipedia:
When the album was first issued, the main back cover photo (taken at a performance of Warhol's event Exploding Plastic Inevitable) contained an image of actor Eric Emerson projected upside-down on the wall behind the band. Having recently been arrested for drug possession and desperate for money, Emerson threatened to sue over this unauthorized use of his image, unless he was paid. Rather than complying, MGM recalled copies of the album and halted its distribution until Emerson's image could be airbrushed from the photo on subsequent pressings. Copies that had already been printed were sold with a large black sticker covering the actor’s image.
Back cover of a later pressing with Emerson's image airbrushed out. The title is set in all-caps Othello.
Gatefold (left)
Gatefold (right)
1 Comment on “The Velvet Underground & Nico album art”
Over at Daylight Fonts, Shin Oka published a post with correspondence he had with Craig Braun. According to Braun, he was the one who “came up with the idea of a pink banana coming out of the sticker.”
Wikipedia describes Braun’s role as follows:
In a 2018 article by Long Live Vinyl, Braun recalls:
I have added Braun’s name to the design credits (he’s not mentioned in the album) and used the opportunity to add more and bigger images, including such showing a close-up of the sticker and the pink banana underneath.