Satellite of Love

Reed composed the song in 1970, while he was still in the Velvet Underground. Doug Yule recalled in a 2005 interview that Reed mentioned it to him that summer in a limousine, referring to a satellite that had just gone up. The band recorded a faster demo during the Loaded sessions, which stayed unheard until the box set Peel Slowly and See in 1995. In that version the unfaithful girlfriend's lovers are Winkin, Blinkin and Nod, and on Transformer they became Harry, Mark and John. Reed later said of the old lyric that it was best left forgotten.

The song is about a man who watches a satellite launch on television and feels what Reed called the worst kind of jealousy. David Bowie sang backing vocals, especially on the last chorus, and Reed wrote that Bowie's voice goes all the way up there, which he found fabulous. Released as the second single in February 1973, it reached 119 in the United States. Tosches named it, with Hangin' 'Round, one of the two remaining good tracks on the album, and Pitchfork later called it the album's centerpiece. In 2004 a remix called Satellite of Love '04 reached 10 on the UK Singles Chart. Morrissey's live cover, recorded in Las Vegas in 2011, was released after Reed's death and topped the US Hot Singles Sales chart.