The Velvet Underground and Nico turns 50 this year. UME is celebrating by releasing on 6/30 a black vinyl edition of the album with its original Andy Warhol-designed cover art and a pink vinyl version limited to 1,000 copies. In November, VU co-founder John Cale will perform the album in full with an orchestra and special guests on 11/16-17 as part of the 2017 Next Wave Festival at New York's BAM. (On 11/18, he’ll do a career retrospective performance).

In addition to reproducing Warhol's "banana cover" design, complete with peelable banana sticker, the 50th-anniversary vinyl edition also reproduces the album's original gatefold cover as well as its rare original back-cover "torso" photo, with Lou Reed's face superimposed over the torso of Warhol associate Eric Emerson.

The shot is restored to its original glory on the 50th anniversary edition, along with a replica of the black sticker that was used to obscure the image. The sticker will be attached to the shrink wrap of the anniversary LP.

An additional insert has been added for this edition, with vintage images plus new liner notes by Cale and Richie Unterberger, author of the book White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day.

The album, released in March 1967 on Verve Records, sold only 30,000, but as Brian Eno famously said, everyone who bought it formed a band. And if you think you like the album, you got nothing on this guy, one of our favorite publicists.