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"Sunday Morning"
Single by the Velvet Underground
from the album The Velvet Underground & Nico
B-side	"Femme Fatale"
Released	December 1966 (1966-12)
Recorded	November 1966
Studio	Mayfair Recording, New York City
Genre	Pop
Length	2:53
Label	Verve
Songwriter(s)	Lou Reed
Producer(s)	Tom Wilson
The Velvet Underground singles chronology
"All Tomorrow's Parties" (1966) "Sunday Morning" (1966) "White Light/White Heat" (1968)
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"Sunday Morning" is a song by the Velvet Underground. It is the opening track on their 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. It was first released as a single in December 1966. The song is written in the key of F major.

Recording

about how you feel when you've been up all Saturday night and you're crawling home while people are going to church. The sun is up and you're like Dracula, hiding your eyes.

In late 1966, "Sunday Morning" was the final song to be recorded for The Velvet Underground & Nico. It was requested by Tom Wilson, who thought the album needed another song with lead vocals by Nico with the potential to be a successful single. The final master tape of side one of the album shows "Sunday Morning" only penciled in before "I'm Waiting for the Man".

In November 1966, Wilson brought the band into Mayfair Recording Studios in Manhattan. The song was written with Nico's voice in mind by Lou Reed and John Cale on a Sunday morning. The band previously performed it live with Nico singing lead, but when it came time to record it, Lou Reed sang the lead vocal. Nico would instead sing backing vocals on the song.

Aiming to create a hit for the album, "Sunday Morning" features noticeably more lush and professional production than the rest of the songs on the album. The song's prominent use of celesta was the idea of John Cale, who noticed the instrument in the studio and decided to use it for the song. He also played viola and piano via overdubs and Sterling Morrison, normally the secondary guitarist, played bass, despite his dislike of playing the instrument.

According to Reed, the song's theme was suggested by Andy Warhol. "Andy said, 'Why don't you just make it a song about paranoia?' I thought that was great so I came up with 'Watch out, the world's behind you, there's always someone around you who will call... It's nothing at all' which I feel is the ultimate paranoid statement in that the world cares enough to watch you."

Reception

AllMusic's Mark Deming wrote that the song is "dreamy pop", the only song of that sort on the album. Cash Box said the single is a "haunting, lyrical emotion stirring chant."

Cover versions

"Sunday Morning" has been covered by many artists. Yugoslav punk rock band Psihomodo Pop recorded a Serbo-Croatian version for their 1988 debut album Godina zmaja.

References

1. John, Cale; Lou, Reed; Underground, The Velvet; Lou, Reed (October 31, 2011). "Sunday Morning". Musicnotes.com. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
2. Hogan 1997, p. 6.
3. Bockris, Victor (1994). Transformer: The Lou Reed Story. Simon & Schuster. p. 135. ISBN 0-684-80366-6.
4. Hoffman, Eric. "Examinations: An Examination of John Cale". Mental Contagion. Retrieved October 24, 2014. When I had to play viola, Sterling had to play bass, which he hated. According to the website, the quote is from John Cale's autobiography, What's Welsh for Zen (NY: St. Martin's Press (2000).
5. Pinnock, Tom (September 18, 2012). "John Cale on The Velvet Underground & Nico". Uncut. Archived from the original on December 29, 2014. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
6. Bockris, p. 134-145
7. Deming, Mark. "The Velvet Underground & Nico – The Velvet Underground". AllMusic. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
8. "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. December 17, 1966. p. 22. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
9. Janjatović, Petar (2024). Ex YU rock enciklopedija 1960-2023. Belgrade: self-released / Makart. p. 248.

Sources

• Hogan, Peter (1997). The Complete Guide to the Music of the Velvet Underground. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-5596-7.

• The Velvet Underground songs
• 1966 singles
• Songs written by Lou Reed
• Song recordings produced by Tom Wilson (record producer)
• Songs written by John Cale
• 1966 songs
• Verve Records singles