Who Loves The Sun: Rhino High Fidelity Reissues Velvet Underground, Stooges Classics

Stooges and Velvet Underground Rhino High Fidelity — BUY NOW FROM RHINO.COM

Rhino High Fidelity, the label’s audiophile-standard line of vinyl reissues, has announced its first releases of 2026: two classic rock milestones from the dawn of the 1970s. Limited to 5,000 units each, The Velvet Underground’s Loaded and The Stooges’ Fun House are both available now exclusively from Rhino.com. Each album has been cut from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at Optimal in Germany. Both titles are housed in sturdy, glossy “tip-on” jackets and contain newly-penned liner notes.

Despite the tumultuous period surrounding the birth of The Velvet Underground’s Loaded which saw Lou Reed depart the group shortly before its release, the album nonetheless introduced some of Reed’s most beloved songs including “Sweet Jane” and “Rock and Roll.” With the increased participation of Doug Yule (including the lead vocals on four songs) and without the credited Maureen Tucker, who was pregnant at the time of the album’s recording, Loaded has a very different – and arguably more accessible and pop-oriented – feel than its predecessors in the group’s catalogue. (VU guitarist Sterling Morrison did play on the record, lending it further continuity.) Guest drummers including Doug Yule’s brother Billy, who subbed for Tucker. Future Nuggets curator and Patti Smith collaborator Lenny Kaye was quick to recognize the album’s merits upon its November 1970 release on Atlantic Records’ Cotillion imprint, writing in his original Rolling Stone review that “though the Velvet Underground on Loaded are more loose and straightforward than we’ve yet seen them, there is an undercurrent to the album that makes it more than any mere collection of good-time cuts.” David Fricke has written the new liner notes for the Rhino High Fidelity reissue.

Recorded with producer Don Gallucci at Elektra Sound Recorders in Los Angeles in May 1970 as The Stooges’ sophomore effort, Fun House was commercially unsuccessful upon its initial release on the Elektra label. But its influence as a key building block in the punk revolution can’t go unnoticed, as it quickly developed a cult following among both critics and fans. Blending fast and furious hard rock with improvisation and even a jazz element thanks to Steve Mackay’s saxophone and the loose feel, Fun House showed Iggy Pop, Dave Alexander, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton, and Mackay at their most primal yet still pushing the musical envelope forward. In his new liner notes for this reissue, Iggy reflects, “Something about this record that I like is the way it begins with a couple of very short, fully structured numbers, and then slips farther and farther out of control…yet it never loses a structure of its own.” He continues, “This is not a meat-and-potatoes record. It’s not ‘ten really good songs that the consumer can depend on.’”

Both titles are available for purchase now, exclusively at Rhino.com. You can find the track listings and pre-order links below.

The Velvet Underground, Loaded (Cotillion SD 9034, 1970 – reissued Rhino, 2026)

Side One

“Who Loves The Sun”
“Sweet Jane”
“Rock & Roll”
“Cool It Down”
“New Age”

Side Two

“Head Held High”
“Lonesome Cowboy Bill”
“I Found A Reason”
“Train Round The Bend”
“Oh! Sweet Nuthin’”

The Stooges, Fun House (Elektra EKS 74071, 1970 – reissued Rhino, 2026)

Side One

“Down On The Street”
“Loose”
“T.V. Eye”
“Dirt”

Side Two

“1970”
“Fun House”
“L.A. Blues”

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.