AllMusic

Lou Reed wrote "Pale Blue Eyes" -- widely regarded as his greatest-ever ballad -- for a girl he'd been seeing during his time at Syracuse University in the early '60s. Deeply touching, it is almost frighteningly personal; indeed, the first time Reed played it to Sterling Morrison, the guitarist protested, "if I wrote a song like that, I wouldn't make you play it." Hauntingly slow, its stark accompaniment a duet for warm guitar and almost religious tambourine, "Pale Blue Eyes" documents a love that many people have experienced, but few have ever been able to voice so effectively. Even more affecting is what amounts to the punch line, the half-regretful "the fact that you are married only proves you're my best friend." Years later, incidentally, Reed admitted that the song's original inspiration did, in fact, have hazel eyes.