WOWY vs. Red Hill Mining Town

[Bono's shades]

As I'm sure most of you know, Red Hill Mining Town was originally supposed to be the first single off The Joshua Tree, but Bono couldn't sing it live so With or Without You was chosen as the first single instead. So I was wondering - would the album have been the monster it was sales-wise if Red Hill Mining Town had been the first single? Was it really WOWY that pushed them over the top? Or would RHMT have been a strong enough single to get people really, really excited about the album? Or was the level of anticipation for the album so high that it would have sold like hot cakes regardless of what the first single was?

 

[stagman]

I thought RHMT was replaced by Streets, which was the second single?
Another reason it did'nt become a single was because they could'nt get the video right either.

 

[Axver]

I'm pretty sure WOWY replaced RHMT, not Streets ...

 

[Wowy23]

This is a great thread and I'm sure more knowledgeable U2 fans will dissect it till the cows come home but things happen for a reason. I believe WOWY was U2's biggest and fortunate mistake that launch them into commercial statospheric stardom. It's hard to know what U2 would have achieved had they released RHMT instead of WOWY. Or like you say maybe the album anticipation was so great that it wouldn't have mattered which song was the single; it's hard to tell and we will never know.

 

[Leeloo]

I love RHMT. I like it better than WOWY. I think the album as a whole would have done just as well.

 

[Vox02]

I Still replaced RHMT

Vox

 

[gareth brown]

I did a thread like this on Zootopia, I'd give you a link ...but y'know...the decent Zoo's gone now...

1) I think the album did fine on it's own. U2 were catapulted into super stardom after their fantastic Live-Aid gig, so there was always going to be a massive cause for 'alarm' when U2 were on the verge of releasing a new LP. With or Without being released didn't really matter as it was released a Week after the LP. Except it is one of U2's most easily recognisable tunes and more popular.
2) Red Hill Mining Town was sheduled to be the second single from the Joshua Tree. They recorded the video which currently lies in storage somewhere in Dublin...hopefully waiting to be resurrected in time for the Best of 80-90 DVD release...which WILL happen. It WILL! D'ya hear me?!
3) I personally prefer Red Hill Mining Town. It has all the ingredients of a classic track. If released as a single, I feel it would have gone to No. 1 straight away, and would have been regarded as one of the greatest songs ever written. It is. It just hasn't been given the same spotlight it would have recieved if it were released as a single, as you don't hear people often bringing up LP tracks as much as singles when this kind of discussion takes place...except for Led Zeppelin (who never released a single 'Single'- pun intended) and Pink Floyd, (who took a hiatus from Singles in 1968 with 'Point me at the Sky' I think. [don't quote me on that] until 1979 when they released 'Another Brick in the Wall'.)

But I'm being hounded off the PC now...so I'll have to stop..

 

[gareth brown]

Is it me, or do I always fucking Kill discussions? They always seem to go down the pan or begin to gather dust after I reply. What the hell's going on? I'm not THAT bad. The 'Better than the Real Thing' forum is nowhere near as thriving as it was before I started posting...

 

[~*Buffalo*~]

It's hard to say. Personally I like RHMT better than either Streets or ISHFWILF, but maybe not WOWY. I think it was the album as a whole that made it so popular, not just the singles or lack of them.

 

[Liesje]

I've never understood the hype about RHMT, especially the video. I'm sure there's plenty of video footage we'll never see. Personally, I'm more interested in officially released concerts, since we KNOW that they tape every one! I like WOWY better, but WOWY is probably in my top five U2 songs, so I'm not saying RHMT sucks, I've just always thought it was a little slow in tempo. As for whether or not the album would've done as well, I have no comment since I was only 3 years old then and don't know enough about albums and record sales and yadda yadda yadda...

 

[Bono's shades]

Hmmmm. I always thought RHMT was originally supposed to be the first single. I'm not sure where I first heard that. I dug through some old issues of Rolling Stone tonight and I found a blurb in the March 12, 1987, issue that says the first video from JT was going to be RHMT - except they called it "Red Hill Town." Since RS screwed up the title of the song, they may have screwed up some other facts as well. Maybe RHMT WAS supposed to be the second single until they discovered Bono couldn't sing it live and/or the video didn't work out.

Personally I always thought RHMT was a really good song, but nowhere near the caliber of WOWY. Whether U2 planned to go with WOWY as the first single all along or decided to make a last-minute switch, I believe they did the right thing.

I would love to see the video for RHMT sometime, but I think if the band wanted it to be shown they would have done it by now. I suspect they haven't done so because the it was never completely finished or they just plain didn't like it.

 

[brettig]

With Or Without You is one of the great songs by anyone...Red Hill Mining Town makes for a good trivia question.

 

[Achtung_Bebe]

Originally posted by
Is it me, or do I always fucking Kill discussions? They always seem to go down the pan or begin to gather dust after I reply. What the hell's going on? I'm not THAT bad. The 'Better than the Real Thing' forum is nowhere near as thriving as it was before I started posting...

It's obvious that nothing can be added to your utterly inspired responses, that's all.

I was but 3 when WOWY was released, but apparently the question of which single would introduce the album was a subject of much debate. I like when Bono said that WOWY "whispered" itself into the world, specifically referring to its opening rift. Ofcourse album releases require strategic planning, and first impressions greatly influence the general public... so it is hard to say, but I think JT is such a masterpiece that it wouldn't have made too great a difference.

 

[Sicy]

I LOVE Red Hill Mining Town. I heard it today on the radio and I practically cried that's how much I love it. It's just so powerful.

 

[Slapnutz]

I found this titbit which is taken from an online chat Paul McGuinness did in 1997 to promote the Sarajevo gig.

Tonster: Paul : Why is the Red Hill Mining Town video still locked up in a vault? A lot of fans
would love to see it.

Paul: The real answer is that it's not very good. We thought that song was a hit and went
straight into making a video before the song was played on the radio. The moment it was
played on the radio it was the 11th most popular track in 1987 so clearly it wasn't the hit
single we imagined it to be. We threw ourselves into amking that video withNeil Jordan
without checking to see whether the audience liked the song. The other part is that the video
was really terrible and embarassing. That's the reason it's been deep sixed.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

i personally like rhmt a lot, even better than wowy. however, i'm just not a fan of much of side a of the joshua tree (i usually start playing jt at rhmt). the first three tracks have been played too much on the radio, track four too if you count classic rock and aor stations which don't always play singles.

anyway, since it's been proven (i guess that's the right word?) that rhmt was supposed to be the second single, i don't think it would've mattered what was chosen. by the release of wowy and jt they were huge. i think anything off that album would've gone to #1 really, unless they picked something not-so-radio friendly like exit. i think ishfwilf was a great choice in a second single, and rhmt should've been third and wtshnn fourth, or vice versa.

 

[U2girl]

I prefer WOWY and it was a much bigger hit. (Red hill mining town was played on the radio too, right?)

 

[shaun vox]

go listen and watch R&H dvd wowy and then tell me what you like!

what ever you do do not, i say do not listen to wowy from boston or slane dvd(very bad)

 

[Axver]

Actually, considering Popmart Mexico and Elevation Boston, WOWY at Slane is quite good. But it can't hold a candle to the one on Rattle And Hum and probably should be withdrawn from the setlist. Only problem is, even though people complain about it being crap live, at the shows it isn't performed, other people get all disappointed. Bah.