Talk about......Choice of singles right back to the start....

3rd one of these.

You all know the drill by now.

Talk about u2's choice of singles down the years.

You can do it by album in chronological order....pick any period you want....list what they did and what you would have prefered maybe and so on and so on....whatever you fancy!

Have they got better at it down years...have they got worse at it....when was the golden period...what were the big missed opportunities.....etc etc etc...open discussion.

Maybe you want to rank them all....

Talk about u2's choice of singles down the years.....

I think HTDAAB was the last time they picked great singles. The last three albums have had the worst songs picked as lead/mainstream singles. It's baffling, especially since they previously had done a solid job of picking excellent singles.

Think they really misfired for the lead single selection for Pop, No Line and SOI.  They seemed to nail HTDAAB (even though I hate those singles with a passion) and seemed to think that trend would work going forward but it didn't.  They seemed to make a good choice on the recent album with a low key song.

All right, I'll play...

Boy :
"Stories for Boys" should have been a single. It aged really well and could very well be considered as "punk rock". Bummer it has not been played live since... what ? 1982 ?

October :
I would nominate "Rejoice" as a potential single. IMO the tune is stronger than "Fire", although the band probably wanted to show a different side of their craft on their 2nd album. "Rejoice" sounds as if it could be on Boy.

War :
I honestly don't think they could have done better than releasing Sunday Bloody Sunday (worldwide) and New Year's Day as singles.

The Unforgettable Fire :
There's this alternate mix of "A Sort of Homecoming" from Daniel Lanois and Peter Gabriel but I don't think it would have had much of an impact on the charts.

The Joshua Tree :
Not changing a thing.

Rattle and Hum :
IMO, "Heartland" should have been a hit and one of U2's signature songs. With a tighter mix, I believe it could have had some airplay.

Achtung Baby :
Not changing a thing.

Zooropa :
Not changing a thing.

Pop :
Not changing a thing.

All that you can't leave behind :
Release "In a little while" instead of "Elevation" and make it a classic U2 song.

How to dismantle an atomic bomb :
Not much to save, I'm afraid. Vertigo is a decent single but that's pretty much it.

No Line on the Horizon :
"Magnificent" should have been the first single, followed by an edit mix of "Moment of Surrender" and "No Line on the Horizon".

Songs of Innocence :
Not changing a thing. Not that i think the album or marketing were perfect but, in retrospect I believe they chose the tunes they had to.

Songs of Experience :
As much as I love the album... I don't think there's a song strong enough in there to qualify among U2's best singles. There are songs that I absolutely love but they do not carry the "U2 Masterpiece" mark.

Very thorough, Soloyan!

Am i alome in thinking that The Troubles would have maybe been a surprise hit had it been a single from SOI...?

It has a very contempary sound and the female vocal is something very different for u2 - always thought it could have caught on with that vocal and repetitive refrain.

Very thorough, Soloyan!

Am i alome in thinking that The Troubles would have maybe been a surprise hit had it been a single from SOI...?

It has a very contempary sound and the female vocal is something very different for u2 - always thought it could have caught on with that vocal and repetitive refrain.

I agree with that. Love Troubles. A bit too similar to that Duran Duran song but I can live with that.

I guess I was more interested in the b-sides that used to come with the release of singles than the singles themselves except for The Fly, which created real curiosity about what the band was up to...

Achtung Baby and Pop were the best singles phases as far as quantity was concerned.  There was a lot to track down and sift through and the dance remixes felt like a unique side of the band.  I especially enjoyed the Discotheque EP and played it as frequently as the album once it came out.  The Howie B Hairy remix of Holy Joe is epic.

The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree singles and b-side phase was the best as far as quality was concerned.  The b-sides felt like extensions of the album and I still listen to them today.  Three Sunrises, Bass Trap, 60 Seconds In Kingdom Come, Boomerang I & II, Love Comes Tumbling, Luminous Times, Walk To The Water, Deep In The Heart, Spanish Eyes, Silver And Gold, Race Against Time, Sweetest Thing...a good album right there.

Not much excitement about their singles since Beautiful Day and Electrical Storm...zero excitement about singles for SOI & SOE now that physical EPs with b-sides are no longer part of the equation.

Yeah those UF and JT b-sides are my favourite too, and it’s interesting, I find that U2 haters tend to like them. Those songs really bring out another side of U2 very at odds with their current incarnation.

Thinking about No Line on the Horizon for a minute,  there was a great album in there but it just needed a bit of reconstruction.  First i would remove the middle 3 clunkers,  then add the 2004 version of Mercy in their place.  If there was still room for another song,  i might add 'Soon' somewhere in the mix,  in a place that makes sense. 

So for the singles,  i kind of want to go left field here,  so here goes:

Lead Single:  Magnificent Fred Falke radio edit


then the rock song:


then Mercy,  who cares how long it is?  Just beautiful...


And finally another off the beaten path that wouldn't have been a "hit" but it sure says something about artistic credibility if you ask me:

Unknown Caller

They picked the right lead singles up to and including the A-Bomb.  After that it didn't really matter what the single picks were as singles had lost their importance.  I would have gone with a single edit of MoS for NLOTH, The Troubles for SoI and RFD for SoE.

Totally agree they've been messing it up since HTDAAB. SoI was complete shenanigans, especially with EBW.

You can argue not releasing Kite as a single from ATYCLB was a missed opportunity, but that album was single mad, anything from the first half would have been a hit. 

The Troubles. AMC uses it for a Walking Dead promo, instant publicity, positive comments on YouTube... and what the hell was Oseary doing, dining on a yacht in the Bahamas? The band should have jumped on that opportunity and released TT to radio. It would have been a fair hit.

Very thorough, Soloyan!

Am i alome in thinking that The Troubles would have maybe been a surprise hit had it been a single from SOI...?

It has a very contempary sound and the female vocal is something very different for u2 - always thought it could have caught on with that vocal and repetitive refrain.

I'm having a hard time imagining the song getting much airplay but you might be right. That refrain is a great hook and the song is beautiful. I remember we had this conversation at the time.

One of the problems with U2 and singles is that most of their songs are mid-tempo and most radio stations avoid it.

Another thing I'm wondering is if a song like "With or Without You" would get much airplay, by today's standards...? "One" wasn't a hit at the time.

They picked the right lead singles up to and including the A-Bomb.  After that it didn't really matter what the single picks were as singles had lost their importance.  I would have gone with a single edit of MoS for NLOTH, The Troubles for SoI and RFD for SoE.

I agree with all of those. I think Volcano or CR could also have worked well for SOI.

Quote from: Tumbling Dice on October 09, 2018, 06:09:07 PM

They picked the right lead singles up to and including the A-Bomb.  After that it didn't really matter what the single picks were as singles had lost their importance.  I would have gone with a single edit of MoS for NLOTH, The Troubles for SoI and RFD for SoE.

I agree with all of those. I think Volcano or CR could also have worked well for SOI.

I think Volcano is too flimsy to have been a lead single and CR is too subject-specific.

Did they pick the Miracle (of Joey Ramone) as a lead single because Bono thought the Ramones reference would help convince the world that he's actually a punk?