Editing The Velvet Underground & Nico (section)

===Chart history and sales figures===
Upon release, ''The Velvet Underground & Nico'' was a commercial flop.{{sfn|Ross|2014}} The album's controversial content led to its almost instantaneous ban from various record stores, many radio stations refused to play it, and magazines refused to carry advertisements for it.{{sfn|Harvard|2004}} Its lack of success can also be attributed to [[Verve Records|Verve]], who failed to promote or distribute the album with anything but modest attention.{{sfn|Harvard|2004}}<ref name="Heylin"/> However, [[Richie Unterberger]] of [[AllMusic]] also notes that:

{{Blockquote|...{{nbsp}}the music was simply too daring to fit onto commercial radio; "underground" rock radio was barely getting started at this point, and in any case may well have overlooked the record at a time when psychedelic music was approaching its peak.<ref>{{cite web|last=Unterberger|first=Richie|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-velvet-underground-mn0000840402/biography|title=The Velvet Underground|website=[[AllMusic]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170318031311/http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-velvet-underground-mn0000840402/biography|archive-date=March 18, 2017}}</ref>}}

The album first entered the ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' album charts on May 13, 1967, at number 199 and left the charts on June 10, 1967, at number 195. When Verve recalled the album in June due to Eric Emerson's lawsuit, it disappeared from the charts for five months. It then re-entered the charts on November 18, 1967, at number 182, peaked at number 171 on December 16, 1967, and finally left the charts on January 6, 1968, at number 193.<ref name="Bockris-Malanga"/>

The English musician [[Brian Eno]] said in 1982 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".<ref name="eno"/> Writers often use this quotation as a definitive figure for how many copies of ''The Velvet Underground & Nico'' were sold in the first several years. While it indeed sold less than Warhol and the band had hoped, according to a [[MGM Records|MGM]] royalty statement presented to Jeff Gold, a former [[Warner Bros. Records]] executive, 58,476 copies of the album sold through February 1969—a respectable figure for a late-1960s  LP.{{sfn|Unterberger|2009|p=138}}<ref name="baker-2017">{{cite journal | last=Baker | first=R. C. | date=August 22, 2017 | url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/08/22/addicted-to-lou/ | title=Addicted to Lou | journal=The Village Voice | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822225557/https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/08/22/addicted-to-lou/ | archive-date=August 22, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Lipez | first=Zachary | date=November 19, 2014 | url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-velvet-underground-reissue-doug-yule-lou-reed-photos-live-footage/ | title=Doug Yule Gives Rare Interview About the Velvet Underground's Third, Self-Titled Album, Shares Alternate Version of 'Foggy Notion' | website=Noisey | publisher=Vice Media | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108130703/https://www.vice.com/en/article/rq4d8m/the-velvet-underground-reissue-doug-yule-lou-reed-photos-live-footage | archive-date=November 8, 2020}}</ref> Grant McPhee, a filmmaker and music writer, later conducted a 2021 investigation into Eno's famous claim and concluded that it may have sold as many as 200,000 copies by 1971 alone.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Velvet Underground Myth? - Grant McPhee |url=https://intocreative.co.uk/the-velvet-underground-myth-grant-mcphee/ |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=Into Creative}}</ref>