I've been a Top Gear fan since 5th or 6th grade, been a fan of it for a lot longer than I've been a fan of U2. I've gone back and watched a few episodes in the years since I fell in love with the band, and I've noticed that somebody in the music department for the show must have been a U2 fan as well, particularly of their 90's output.
First one I noticed was the appearance of
Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car in Series 10 Episode 1. As Richard Hammond drives a Porsche 911 GT3 near Monaco and introduces the film, we hear about a minute of Daddy's Gonna Pay, the instrumental intro.
Go to about 18:20 in this video to hear it:
https://autostrada.tv/blog/top-gear-season-10-episode-1/58815/A bit of that intro, the sampled Russian piece, shows up again in Series 22 Episode 1 at the beginning of a segment taking place in St. Petersburg.
We also hear a bit of
Do You Feel Loved in Series 17 Episode 2 as Jeremy Clarkson drives a Citroen DS3 Racing in Italy.
Skip to 47:00 in this video to hear that song:
https://autostrada.tv/blog/top-gear-season-17-episode-2/855/4And then the song usage that I just noticed today, the one that inspired me to finally write this post, is the use of just a little bit of
Acrobat in Top Gear's tribute film to Ayrton Senna.
At 7:00 in this video you can hear just the opening few seconds before the song really starts:
That's a song each from Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and POP, a deep cut from each in fact. And their picks from AB and POP are both forum favorites as well.
So, An Tha you didn't happen to work as an editor for Top Gear in the past did you?