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Born March 2nd, 1942 Key Tracks "Satellite of Love," "I'm Waiting for the Man," "Venus in Furs" (the Velvet Underground) Influenced The Strokes, David Bowie, Patti Smith

"I do Lou Reed better than anybody," Reed once boasted onstage. He was only half-kidding. There is no voice in rock like Reed's: a confrontational blend of dry intonation and hard New York-native attitude that suited the dark, frank songs he wrote about sex, drugs and lost souls for the Velvet Underground and on a lifetime of provocative solo albums. "I don't do blues turns, because I can't," Reed told Rolling Stone in 1989. "And I'm not trying to put on a phony accent." But underlying Reed's acidic talking-blues delivery is a deep love of Fifties R&B and doo-wop. As a teenager, he listened to vocal groups such as the Paragons and the Diablos on the radio, influences that can be clearly heard in his most romantic songs, such as "Satellite of Love" and "Perfect Day."

1. Satellite of Love
2. I'm Waiting for the Man
3. Venus in Furs
4. Walk on the Wild Side
5. Dirty Blvd.
6. Vicious
7. Street Hassle
8. Pale Blue Eyes
9. Heroin
10. Rock and Roll

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