Editor-in-Chief, Music

Before the Velvet Underground, and before he became one of the most important songwriters of his generation, Lou Reed was a songwriter-for-hire for a company called Pickwick Records. He released songs that were deliberately intended to be Top 40 hits under various fake group names, the most successful of which was a song they hoped would spark a dance craze, "The Ostrich." It didn't happen, but the group assembled to tour behind the song included Reed (pictured above, far right) and John Cale — and the roots of the Velvet Underground, which formed shortly after Reed left Pickwick.

Those songs have appeared on compilations and bootlegs over the decades, but the first official anthology, "Why Don't You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-65," will be released Sept. 27 on Light in the Attic Records, in partnership with Laurie Anderson and the Lou Reed Archive, with physical copies to follow Oct. 4. The collection, which also includes previously unreleased material, includes an essay by Patti Smith Group co-founder and "Nuggets" compiler Lenny Kaye, along with liner notes by author/journalist Richie Unterberger. (The full track listing is below.)

The release is the third in the label's ongoing series of Reed releases, following the reissue of his "Hudson River Wind Meditations" and "Words & Music, May 1965", the latter of which collected his early demos and was nominated for a Grammy Award.