U2's single positions in the UK

[Jarvio]

1 - Beautiul Day
1 - Vertigo
1 - Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
1 - Discotheque
1 - Desire
1 - The Fly
2 - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
2 - City Of Blinding Lights
2 - Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
3 - Sweetest Thing
3 - Pride (In The Name Of Love)
3 - Elevation
3 - Staring At The Sun
4 - With Or Without You
4 - Stay (Far Away, So Close!)
4 - Where The Streets Have No Name
4 - Window In The Skies
4 - All Because Of You
4 - All I Want Is You
5 - Electrical Storm
5 - Walk On
6 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
6 - When Love Comes To Town
6 - The Unforgettable Fire
6 - Miss Sarajevo
7 - One
7 - Please
9 - Angel Of Harlem
10 - New Year's Day
10 - Last Night On Earth
12 - Even Better Than The Real Thing
12 - If God Will Send His Angels
12 - Get On Your Boots
13 - Mysterious Ways
14 - Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
18 - Two Hearts Beat As One
32 - I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
35 - Fire
42 - Magnificent
47 - A Celebration
48 - In God's Country (Import)
55 - Gloria
x - I Will Follow
x - A Day Without Me
x - 11 O'Clock Tick-Tock

x = missed top 75

Discuss

 

[doctorwho]

The U.K. singles chart has changed dramatically. With the HTDAAB singles, all U2 had to do was sell enough copies in a given week to reach #1 or #2 - which could only be a few thousand in sales. The chart didn't really reflect the popularity of the song.

This system helped and hurt U2. It helped them in 2000 and 2004, but I think hurt them in the late 80's and early 90's as evidenced by the lack of numerous #1 or #2 hits in that era. Clearly U2 had their biggest hits then and the songs were wildly popular on the radio, but as U2 probably sold more albums than singles, the singles chart worked against them. In the 2000's, when single sales were low, any decent number of singles sold meant a big hit.

Now that the charts combine sales and radio, the overall popularity of a song is more accurately measured. Still, I think "Crazy" is a bit low. I also feel that U2's late release of the single hurt what should have been a Top 30 or even a Top 20 hit. The song was clearly peaking on iTunes while U2 was touring in the U.K. But by the time the single was "officially" released, that had died down.

Regardless, with the new format and given how the U.K. seems to enjoy some really odd songs (songs that would NEVER be a hit in the U.S. - like Crazy Frog), I'm not sure U2 can have another Top 10 hit again there. Maybe, just maybe, if they create some mind-blowing first single off a new highly anticipated album, they'll get it. But otherwise, I think we'll have to settle for Top 40.

 

[Irishteen]

Now that the charts combine sales and radio, the overall popularity of a song is more accurately measured.

UK charts are entirely sales

 

[doctorwho]

UK charts are entirely sales

I read elsewhere that this not true. The updated chart is now a combination of sales and airplay.

If it is all sales, then all of the chart positions are very low, even GOYB. How can "Sometimes..." hit #1 but others not even break the top 10? "Last Night on Earth" - the third single from the relatively poorly received "Pop" still reached #10. So I find it difficult to accept that "Crazy" saw such poor sales to only reach #32.

 

[Irishteen]

I read elsewhere that this not true. The updated chart is now a combination of sales and airplay.

If it is all sales, then all of the chart positions are very low, even GOYB. How can "Sometimes..." hit #1 but others not even break the top 10? "Last Night on Earth" - the third single from the relatively poorly received "Pop" still reached #10. So I find it difficult to accept that "Crazy" saw such poor sales to only reach #32.

There's an unofficial chart that includes airplay, the official chart is 100% sales if it included airplay all the singles would of charted higher

Magnificent was 5 on airplay, 42 on sales
Crazy was 15 on airplay, 32 on sales

 

[Native_Son]

sometimes was #1 on both, sales of 33,000 first week

 

[doctorwho]

Learned something new - I could have sworn the chart was different (I'm too lazy to see if I can find that comment).

If these positions are sales alone, then this is very disappointing. I would have thought that collectors - like me - would be enough to account for a good 5-10K in sales. Add in all the multiple versions of the CD's or 45 rpm singles (I think there are 4 versions of "Magnificent") and that's four purchases for every collector. Then add in some casual sales and that should easily be enough for a Top 20 if not Top 10. But clearly times have changed.

Perhaps the economy is playing a role. But I suspect it's more of an iTunes artifact. People still buy singles, just not in physical form. With iTunes allowing people to cherry pick songs, it's easy to see how 30 or 40 artists will have more sales on any given week as fans pick their favorite songs from the new and old. As U2 are more of an album band, their iTunes singles sales will probably be low. Add in the fact that NLOTH just didn't seem to catch on in the U.K. (while sales are low in the U.S., U2 have outsold almost every other artist who released an album this year), and I guess this is the result - soft-selling singles.

 

[Danny Boy]

There's an exhaustive guide to the official UK singles chart rules here (PDF link):

http://theofficialcharts.com/docs/Official UK Singles Chart Rules August 2009.pdf

But yeah, all sales. Maximum of three physical formats and three download formats.

 

[ic170]

I think a lot of, shall we say, "non pop acts" are finding singles 2, 3 and 4 are not really resonating with the a general music buying audience - ie diminishing returns... having said that, I'd class myself as a fan who own much of the catalogue and buys most of that on day 1, but I've only bought the one U2 single this year [the January GOYB dl and nothing 'physical' since ABoY] nothing appeals to me since, tired of unimaginative remixes and frustarted by already available live stuff etc... I guess that's what made the singles from AB and JT so cool, the mix of unreleased, great remixes, covers and out-takes, yeah good times...

 

[Native_Son]

the downloads really dont help the chart, when songs like KOL - sex on fre, are still in top 10, after 56 weeks on chart!

 

[Irishteen]

the downloads really dont help the chart, when songs like KOL - sex on fre, are still in top 10, after 56 weeks on chart!

Getting a number one with only several thousand sales would be worse

 

[ic170]

the downloads really dont help the chart, when songs like KOL - sex on fre, are still in top 10, after 56 weeks on chart!

or you get some DJ saying "hey kids go out an dl a Billy Pipers song or a B side enmasse eh it'll be a laff"... makes the chart into something of a joke [or rather even more of an ongoing joke]

I think the actual singles this time round have been pretty decent choices I just think the extras have generally been really average apart from the Justice Mix of GOYB, NLOTH 2 and the Fred Faulke Magnificent Remix...

btw Crazy Tonight is out of UK Top 40 Sunday 20th Sep...

 

[doctorwho]

I think a lot of, shall we say, "non pop acts" are finding singles 2, 3 and 4 are not really resonating with the a general music buying audience - ie diminishing returns... having said that, I'd class myself as a fan who own much of the catalogue and buys most of that on day 1, but I've only bought the one U2 single this year [the January GOYB dl and nothing 'physical' since ABoY] nothing appeals to me since, tired of unimaginative remixes and frustarted by already available live stuff etc... I guess that's what made the singles from AB and JT so cool, the mix of unreleased, great remixes, covers and out-takes, yeah good times...

While I would agree with most of what you wrote, I challenge the notion of great remixes.

Please take a good listen to the remixes from NLOTH. I have found at least one (if not several) of the remixes from the first three singles to outdo many of U2's past remixes. These are on par with some of U2's best. I can direct you to a few of my choices, but as remixes (as all music) are subjective, I'll let you discover them on your own. But these are indeed great remixes (finally).

 

[thelaj]

the downloads really dont help the chart, when songs like KOL - sex on fre, are still in top 10, after 56 weeks on chart!

The chart reflects the music people are buying, which is how it should be - even if that damages U2's chart performances.

 

[ic170]

While I would agree with most of what you wrote, I challenge the notion of great remixes.

Please take a good listen to the remixes from NLOTH. I have found at least one (if not several) of the remixes from the first three singles to outdo many of U2's past remixes. These are on par with some of U2's best. I can direct you to a few of my choices, but as remixes (as all music) are subjective, I'll let you discover them on your own. But these are indeed great remixes (finally).

Yes, I like the Fred Faulke Magnificent ones with that extra funky bass and Justice GOYB mix, but I also liked what Oakenfold did to Salome, Real Thing & Lemon nack in the day and also the Deep Club versions of Discotheque...

Mostly it's the CT ones, just don't work for me, sorry..

 

[04072511]

In fairness, Beautiful Day sold 80k in its first week in the UK to go to Number 1 (equivalent to 400k in the US), Vertigo sold 50k (equivalent to 250k in the US) and Sometimes sold about 32k (equivalent to 160k in the US), so i dont think it would be fair to say that U2 topped the chart with soft sales.

However now that downloads have taken off the sales of Physicals have gone way down from these figures.

 

[BoyOnTheHorizon]

There is a fact that not many people may be aware of and i think it might have caused the poor single sales of the last album. The guy who brings rarer U2 material to Brazil and sold me all of the last singles since 1991 told me that they are publishing a very very low volume of this last singles. I couldn't get the Boots single and CT probably wont come either. It's very sad since the singles from Leave Behind and Bomb were so easly purchased.

P.S.: He told me that they are producing only +- 4000 units for each version. I really don't know if that's accurate but i'm sure something is going on on this matter.

 

[Cactus Annie]

What has happened here is that a song can be played on the radio weeks before it is available to buy on ITunes. So the initial excitement over the song may have died down before the single is available do download. But now this is changing. New UK single rule that single will be available for download as soon as the radio plays them. Also with the NLOTH single, a lot of radio stations were bycotting new U2 singles because Bono had a little set to with record companies over copyright payouts. At least he's not afraid to speak his mind.

 

[Cactus Annie]

There is a fact that not many people may be aware of and i think it might have caused the poor single sales of the last album. The guy who brings rarer U2 material to Brazil and sold me all of the last singles since 1991 told me that they are publishing a very very low volume of this last singles. I couldn't get the Boots single and CT probably wont come either. It's very sad since the singles from Leave Behind and Bomb were so easly purchased.

P.S.: He told me that they are producing only +- 4000 units for each version. I really don't know if that's accurate but i'm sure something is going on on this matter.

Yes and this is what I've been saying all along. U2 seemed to want NLOTH as a niche album. The songs were less accessible and the cost of the album itself was less value for money than HTDAAB and ATYCLB. The only question is, why were the band so miffed that the UK market weren't keen on it? The UK public likes songs with big catchy sing-a-long hooks. They want to like the songs, they don't want to get the songs. They're not algebra.