Lou Reed’s songwriting work for Pickwick Records in the mid-1960s is compiled into a single album – find out more below.

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Before forming the Velvet Underground, Reed worked as a songwriter for Pickwick Records. Now the songs he wrote during his time with the company in the mid-1960s have been compiled for a new album: “Why Don’t You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-65.”

The compilation album will be released on September 27th via Light in the Attic in collaboration with Laurie Anderson and the Lou Reed Archive. You can pre-order the album now in various packages.

As the album’s name suggests, Why Don’t You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-65 contains the material he worked on during those two years. The album’s opening track is The Primatives’ “The Ostrich,” on which Reed sings lead vocals.

You can listen to it below.

The track listing for “Why Don’t You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-65” is:

Page A
1. The Primitives – “The Ostrich”
2. The Beachnuts – “Cycle Annie”
3. The Hi-Lifes – “I will fight”
4. The Hi-Lifes – “Soul City”
5. Ronnie Dickerson – “Oh no, don’t do it”
6. Ronnie Dickerson – “Love can make you cry”
7. The Hollywoods – “Teardrop In The Sand”
8. The Roughnecks – “You’re Driving Me Crazy”

Page B
1. The Primitives – “Sneaky Pete”
2. Terry Philips – “Wild One”
3. Spongy And The Dolls – ‘Really – really – really – really – really – really love’
4. The Foxes – “Soul City”
5. The J-Brothers – “You run, but I’ll catch you”
6. Beverly Ann – “We’re in Trouble”
7. The All Night Workers – “Why don’t you smile?”
8. Jeannie Larimore – “Johnny Won’t Surf No More”

Page C
1. Robertha Williams – “Tell Mama Not to Cry”
2. Robertha Williams – “Maybe Tomorrow”
3. Terry Philips – “Flowers for the Lady”
4. Terry Philips – “This Rose”

Page D
1. The Surfsiders – “Surfin”
2. The Surfsiders – “Little Deuce Coupe”
3. The Beachnuts – “Sad, lonely orphan boy”
4. The Beachnuts – “I have a tiger in my tank”
5. Ronnie Dickerson – “What About Me?”

Reed’s last solo album was Hudson River Wind Meditations, and he later collaborated with Metallica on their 2011 joint album Lulu. The controversial album drew such strong reactions from listeners that Reed once said Metallica fans “threatened to shoot him” because of it.

Still, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich recently doubled down on his efforts, writing in a posthumous book by Reed: “I don’t quite understand it, but years later, it’s aged extremely well. It still sounds like a motherfucker. So I can only put the reaction down to ignorance.”

Ulrich described his band’s experiences working with the Velvet Underground legend in the past as positive and stressed that he would “not change anything” about it.