He Made it First

Music lost one of its greatest legends yesterday and although he never reached the same commercial success as Bob Dylan and the Beatles, his band, the Velvet Underground’s imprint on musical history will always remain. Lou Reed died of liver failure at the age of 71, but his music continues to live.

This New Yorker emerged in the same scene as Andy Warhol and together they helped shaped the era. One could argue that they actually shaped, if not created, Indie Rock, Punk, New Wave and the Alternative genres. They might have not been commercial but you would be hard pressed to find a band that inspired more people to pick up a guitar and get weird with it.

"The first Velvet Underground record sold 30,000 copies in the first five years," Brian Eno, who produced albums by David Bowie and Talking Heads among others, once said. "I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!"

In this edition of Who Made It First? we take Lou Reed's most commercially successful song, albeit not our favourite Velvet Underground song, Take a Walk on the Wildside and prove that it will continue to live long into the future, as it continues to be sampled and re-invented into all sorts of genre.

(2000) Take a Walk on the Wildside, by Tok Tok Tok on their Love Again album.

(2011) Walk on the Wildside, by The Dynamics on their 180 000 Miles and Counting album.

(2007) Walk on the Wildside by Pink Turtle on their Reprise! When Jazz meets pop #3 album.

(1991) Can I Kick It? by A Tribe Called Quest on their album The Low End Theory.

(1991) Wildside, by Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch on his Music for the People album.