The Velvet Underground, the band formed by Lou Reed and John Cale in the 60s, has taken legal action against the Andy Warhol Foundation for selling his iconic Banana album design to Apple.
The Velvet Underground and Nico
The artwork was originally used on the 1967 album ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’.
The lawsuit this time claims the image is symbolic of the band and fans relate to the image as The Velvet Underground. They claim that by selling the image to Apple for iPad and iPhone products that the Andy Warhol Foundation is cheapening the name of The Velvet Underground and associating them with a product they would never endorse.
However, the artwork was never copyrighted because Andy Warhol originally licenced the image from an ad.
The album was a commercial failure in its day. It entered the Billboard chart in May 13, 1967 at no. 199 and was out by June 10, 1967 after only getting to no. 177. The group disbanded in 1973 and in years to come the album went on to become one of the most important records of its time.
