U2's hits on the hot 100 US charts

[Jarvio]

Here is where all U2 singles charted in the US hot 100. In order of success...

1 - With Or Without You
1 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
3 - Desire
9 - Mysterious Ways
10 - One
10 - Discotheque
13 - Where The Streets Have No Name
14 - Angel Of Harlem
16 - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
21 - Beautiful Day
26 - Staring At The Sun
31 - Vertigo
32 - Even Better Than The Real Thing
33 - Pride (In The Name Of Love)
35 - Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
37 - Get On Your Boots
44 - In God's Country
52 - Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
53 - New Year's Day
57 - Last Night On Earth
61 - The Fly
61 - Stay (Far Away, So Close!)
63 - Sweetest Thing
68 - When Love Comes To Town
77 - Electrical Storm
79 - Magnificent
83 - All I Want Is You
84 - Ordinary Love
97 - Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own

101 - Two Hearts Beat As One (As #1 in the bubbling under charts)
101 - All Because Of You (As #1 in the bubbling under charts)
103 - Lemon (As #3 in the bubbling under charts)
103 - Please (As #3 in the bubbling under charts)
108 - Invisible (As #8 in the bubbling under charts)
116 - Elevation (As #16 in the bubbling under charts)
118 - Walk On (As #18 in the bubbling under charts)

??? - 11 'Oclock Tick-Tock
??? - A Day Without Me
??? - I Will Follow
??? - Gloria
??? - Fire
??? - A Celebration
??? - The Unforgettable Fire
??? - Miss Sarajevo
??? - If God Will Send His Angels
??? - City Of Blinding Lights
??? - Window In The Skies
??? - I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
??? - You're The Best Thing About Me

Can anyone help me with the "???" positions? They didn't chart I know, but it would be nice to know their order of success. I wonder what the lowest would be for example.

Some thoughts:
- Discotheque's high position is somewhat of a shock
- Mysterious Ways was massive in the US but not so much in the UK
- WGRYWH, considering it was the 5th single from an album, did really well, further mystifying me why they left it off the best of 90-00
- The SOI singles are not included because it is my understanding that they were not eligible for singles charts

 

[rennowba]

American charts the bubbling under chart what the hell is all that about

 

[PennyLanePHINS]

Bubbling Under is to show which songs are on the verge of entering the Hot 100, but not quite. It doesn't include songs that were on the Hot 100 but fell off, ie a song that was 90 doesn't go back to 102.

 

[codeguy]

This shows how meaningless singles charts are

 

[Jarvio]

Bubbling Under is to show which songs are on the verge of entering the Hot 100, but not quite. It doesn't include songs that were on the Hot 100 but fell off, ie a song that was 90 doesn't go back to 102.

Ah that's a point, I guess #1 on bubbling under doesn't necessarily mean 101 after all then

 

[rennowba]

The way I see it is if it isn't in the top 100 it hasn't charted but that's just me

 

[U2FloridaFan]

Now I know why I don't put much stock in the charts. The most recent, highest charting single is Boots. While I'm happy to get into it when I see them live, it's not a song I would ever have on my playlist.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

Some thoughts:
- Discotheque's high position is somewhat of a shock
- Mysterious Ways was massive in the US but not so much in the UK
- WGRYWH, considering it was the 5th single from an album, did really well, further mystifying me why they left it off the best of 90-00
- The SOI singles are not included because it is my understanding that they were not eligible for singles charts

- Discotheque was a unique electronic song and the first taste of the first U2 album targeted towards the wider pop audience since Achtung Baby six years prior. It sold very well as a commercial release and went Gold. The bigger problem was radio not really wanting it (especially with the godawful radio edits) and the general public being mostly bewildered by it.

- Mysterious Ways and One were both big crossover pop hits. Whereas the record collector that would buy a single in the UK likely had already bought Achtung Baby by that point. You can kind of see this throughout their UK chart runs where the first single usually does best and then it was diminishing returns...basically, the first song benefited from the album not being out yet and the continuing line of singles would do worse and worse as buyer fatigue set in. The UK charts was like all about single purchases up until they started counting downloads (in which case, U2 was basically done on the charts since younger people aren't as into them). So, it's not necessarily reflective of what was popular or getting a ton of radio play. Tons of indie acts racked up Top 10 and Top 20 hits because their dedicated fans would purchase the EPs, etc. Doesn't mean any of those songs were really hits.

The United States was practically the opposite. The labels purposely tried to discourage CD singles. Often, a lot of massive hits weren't even released in that manner (so you had to buy the album) or were way too cost prohibitive to make it worth your while ($5, making the $15 album often sound more appealing). The US charts are way more accurate since they combined airplay and sales, yet they would not let songs that weren't released as a commercial single actually enter the chart so massive hits like "Don't Speak" by No Doubt were relegated to a separate Airplay chart.

Then again, airplay wouldn't be all that reflective for the UK given that there's just far fewer radio stations playing music, making it much harder to break onto radio, etc. You'd be given way too much chart power to the small handful of people that can actually play songs.


- Wild Horses was a noticeable pop hit that helped sell the record, particularly to people that weren't that into rock. But it would have absolutely zero business being on a Best Of. Not only are the other five singles (commercial and/or promotional) far more important in U2's history, but even album tracks like "Zoo Station" and "Ultra Violet" (and now "Acrobat") would go on to get far more concert plays.


- SOI singles actually were eligible, but...

1) Basically nobody bought the album since it was handed out for free.

2) Chucking it into free iTunes downloads prohibited them from getting streams. So this album got played billions of times over without any of those counting as "streams" since they were digital songs. They basically delivered an album in what they thought was a "futuristic" manner but they were already behind the times. Digital downloads were already dying, replaced by streaming.

3) And if we're going to talk about formats and Billboard rule changes, "Vertigo" was a victim of that. Had Billboard introduced the counting of downloads sooner into its algorithm, "Vertigo" would have at least been a Top Five hit. It slammed back into the Top 40 pretty much from downloads alone well after it had its radio airplay peak. It's not even improbable in the least that it would have been a #1 or damn near close in the US. Unfortunately, the rule change was a few months too late.

 

[Fly-2000]

Some thoughts:
- Discotheque's high position is somewhat of a shock
- Mysterious Ways was massive in the US but not so much in the UK
- WGRYWH, considering it was the 5th single from an album, did really well, further mystifying me why they left it off the best of 90-00
- The SOI singles are not included because it is my understanding that they were not eligible for singles charts

Surprisingly, Pop's singles charted comparatively better than Achtung Baby's in the UK, with four of them reaching the top ten:


U2 | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company


http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/461/passengers/

 

[lazarus]

How in god's name did Walk On fail to chart higher than:

37 - Get On Your Boots
77 - Electrical Storm
79 - Magnificent
84 - Ordinary Love
97 - Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

- The SOI singles are not included because it is my understanding that they were not eligible for singles charts

They were eligible.

They didn't chart because nobody wanted to hear them.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

84 - Ordinary Love

[emoji813]

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Ordinary Love cracking the top 100 and Invisible being right behind just shows what a disaster the whole start-stop-spam everyone Songs of Innocence release method was.