i'm as over Vertigo as anyone on here, but when it first came out in 2004 it was incredibly effective -- they looked fantastic, sounded fantastic, it reached out and grabbed your attention and would have been a top 10 single had downloads been counted. U2 sounded vital and young and as in-your-face as they ever had, and people noticed giving Bomb huge first week sales of over 800,000.
as a first single, it was a complete and total victory, and it's now one of their most recognizable songs and easily one of the crowd highlights of the 360 Tour. we can sound jaded all we want, but Vertigo is as efficient and effective and even ruthless a song as they've ever released, and the non-diehards love it. it really does kick ass, and kicking ass is something U2 usually suck at (see ABOY or GOYB or SUC).