Least single-worthy U2 single?

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Jarvio

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What do you think is the least single-worthy of U2's singles?

This does not necessarily mean your least favourite single - just the single that you think shouldn't have really been a single off that album.

I think my vote goes to Last Night On Earth.

This, to me, is a song with no hook. I don't hate the song. But I don't particularly like it either. I like it more than singles such as Discotheque, The Miracle, GOYB, Numb (if that counts as a proper single). But those songs still seem like singles, rather than the b-side/illusive album track feel that LNOE gives me.

The intro is AWESOME, but it's only a few seconds. Furthermore, the single version rearranges this intro and ruins it IMO. (It's fine on the video though).

But the rest of the song is just a middle of the road rocker for me with no hook. It surprises me that it was the THIRD single off Pop, let alone a single at all. Gone, or Mofo, would have made more sense in its place.

LNOE's chart positions on a whole weren't very good either. It didn't do terribly, but it was the third single off its album, so had an advantage over 4th and 5th singles off of albums, and yet still managed to do worse than most of those. It obviously varies with different countries, but from looking at the overall picture of chart positions all around the world, I'd say that LNOE did worse than EBTTRT, WGRYWH, Please, Walk On, which were all later than 3rd singles off of their respective albums. I think there's a reason for this - LNOE isn't that good of a song, and also has no hook. Just my opinion of course, but I have a feeling that many people didn't rate the song.

So what's your choice of U2's least single-worthy single?
 
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The Miracle. There's nothing catchy about that song at all. It feels like it's building to something, then runs out of gas.

GOYB just because it's a bad song.
 
Miracle, Boots are the ones that immediately spring to mind. I thought Gone and Mofo would have been much better singles than Last night or IGWSHA. Also, dipping way back I was never impressed with Another Day either.
 
Miracle, Boots are the ones that immediately spring to mind. I thought Gone and Mofo would have been much better singles than Last night or IGWSHA. Also, dipping way back I was never impressed with Another Day either.

I dislike The Miracle a lot. And it could have easily got my vote here. But I left it off because it kind of fits with U2's mentality during that time, of trying to be cool with the kids. That's the impression I got from The Miracle.

LNOE on the other hand just seemed like an odd choice at the time. Though it's definitely a better song than The Miracle.

I disagree about IGWSHA though, I think that's decent for a 5th single.
 
I dislike The Miracle a lot. And it could have easily got my vote here. But I left it off because it kind of fits with U2's mentality during that time, of trying to be cool with the kids. That's the impression I got from The Miracle.

LNOE on the other hand just seemed like an odd choice at the time. Though it's definitely a better song than The Miracle.

I disagree about IGWSHA though, I think that's decent for a 5th single.
It took me a long time to get into IGWSHA, years in fact, but in hindsight it was a cool choice I guess, just one I didn't appreciate at the time. It did have a very good video.
 
Get on your boots definitely is one. All because of you off bomb shouldn't have been a single either.
 
Boots, Crazy Tonight, the Best Thing. None should exist. But I'd take both Boots and Crazy Tonight over the Best Thing.
 
The Saints Are Coming. Yuk.

In my opinion, Numb is terrible but I can see their logic behind it.

I also am not a fan of A Celebration or Fire, but they were a young band so I forgive them.

On SOI, The Miracle was a bad lead single though I don't dislike the song. I feel Every Breaking Wave or California would have been a much better choice.

NLOTH: Unpopular opinion but I really like Boots. Fucking rocks live especially. It just shouldn't have been a single. Magnificent or Breathe would have been a better choice as the lead single.

As for TBT, I absolutely love the song and listen to all 4 versions regularly. Why they didn't promote it properly blows my mind, because even all of my non U2 fan friends have really reacted positively toward it.
 
I'm baffled to see LNOE described as a song with no hook when it has one of U2's very best choruses. For Pop I'd have made Gone the lead single and LNOE second.

There have definitely been some odd single choices over the years - A Day Without Me and Fire were poor calls as lead singles, but would've been fine as later singles. Gav's mention of Another Day is a good one, as they had plenty of stronger material back then. (Even weirder is that they dropped the planned b-side, The Dream Is Over, a fine song, for an abysmal but hilarious demo of Twilight.)

But for songs that just plain did not deserve to be singles I find it hard to go past IGWSHA. Chosen, apparently, because of the lyric mentioning Christmas trees, but not at all seasonally appropriate - or, for that matter, a strong song. It had long since been dropped from the setlist and the single was clearly such a non-event that they didn't even try to bring it back. (Unlike WGRYWH, which they tried a few times acoustically around the time of its release as a single, or OOTS, which came back to the set regularly upon being issued as a single.)

Boots and Best Thing should have also never seen release as singles, though you have to say Boots was the poorer choice of the two. And there's a case that EBW should've been the lead single of SOI; the band basically treated it that way anyway.

Oh, and here's a mystifying one for you: 40 was a single in Germany in 1983. 40!
 
The Saints Are Coming. Yuk.

In my opinion, Numb is terrible but I can see their logic behind it.

I also am not a fan of A Celebration or Fire, but they were a young band so I forgive them.

On SOI, The Miracle was a bad lead single though I don't dislike the song. I feel Every Breaking Wave or California would have been a much better choice.

NLOTH: Unpopular opinion but I really like Boots. Fucking rocks live especially. It just shouldn't have been a single. Magnificent or Breathe would have been a better choice as the lead single.

As for TBT, I absolutely love the song and listen to all 4 versions regularly. Why they didn't promote it properly blows my mind, because even all of my non U2 fan friends have really reacted positively toward it.
I still need someone to explain this idea that Best Thing wasn't promoted.
 
I would say
A Celebration (youth forgiven)
All Because of You
Get on Your Boots

Boots not because it's not leaf single material (it is), but because it's an incredibly bad song.
 
I would say
A Celebration (youth forgiven)
All Because of You
Get on Your Boots

Boots not because it's not leaf single material (it is), but because it's an incredibly bad song.

Why not ABOY? That made sense as a quick follow-up to Vertigo.

And A Celebration is a great song, and a good stop-gap between October and War. I do wish it had been on War though, as it deserves not to be forgotten, even if the band when asked in the past have wished to pretend it never existed.
 
I didn't say I wasn't promoted, I said it wasn't properly promoted. Other than Fallon, they didn't seem to really push the song to the general public(aka non U2 Fans) very much. It was just kind of there.
They released it in 18 different formats, had posters in every major city, had it on late night TV, performed it live, had major pushes for radio and social media...

What else, especially considering the overwhelming backlash from last time, would you have had them do?

The absolute last thing they needed to do was a big major in your face campaign.
 
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Why not ABOY? That made sense as a quick follow-up to Vertigo.



And A Celebration is a great song, and a good stop-gap between October and War. I do wish it had been on War though, as it deserves not to be forgotten, even if the band when asked in the past have wished to pretend it never existed.



All Because of You represents the first
time since U2 made it big where the quality of the single was total garbage. I can't think of a single I forget of less - fully equipped with the trite U2 chorus -title but lacking an interesting or otherwise unique sound. And the worst part? It was surrounded by enough decent singles that they didn't *have* to release it. I think it's the mark of their decline - it's where their judgement clearly started to diminish.

I have no qualms with A Celebration as a song. But, it's not the quality that a blossoming young band wants to release. That single is how to fade after some fire, if you ask me. It's a fine song, but if we are holding singles to a quality of "we want you to hear this one specifically," I think it was a bad idea.
 
I would say
A Celebration (youth forgiven)
All Because of You
Get on Your Boots

Boots not because it's not leaf single material (it is), but because it's an incredibly bad song.

I think they were on some kind of leaf when they made Boots.
 
They released it in 18 different formats, had posters in every major city, had it on late night TV, performed it live, had major pushes for radio and social media...

What else, especially considering the overwhelming backlash from last time, would you have had them do?

The absolute last thing they needed to do was a big major in your face campaign.
Performaned it on I think only one late night show, performaned it to U2 fans at u2 shows, who are not the demographic that will up the streaming plays. Social media pushes? Personally, I saw about 10x more social media push for the Blackout.

Basically, you're saying that they couldn't risk an in your face promotion after SOI, so they gave a try to see if it would grow organically. I'm saying it's a catchy as hell song so they should have gone out and done more of an in your face promotion. As I've already said, the people who I've played it around who generally don't like U2 really dug this song. The only way they would have heard it without me forcing them to listen would have been a commercial or something like that.
 
Performaned it on I think only one late night show, performaned it to U2 fans at u2 shows, who are not the demographic that will up the streaming plays. Social media pushes? Personally, I saw about 10x more social media push for the Blackout.

Basically, you're saying that they couldn't risk an in your face promotion after SOI, so they gave a try to see if it would grow organically. I'm saying it's a catchy as hell song so they should have gone out and done more of an in your face promotion. As I've already said, the people who I've played it around who generally don't like U2 really dug this song. The only way they would have heard it without me forcing them to listen would have been a commercial or something like that.
And in saying that if they would have done an in your face, iTunes commercial, everywhere kind of promotion the album would already be DOA.

To be successful they need it to do a little growing on its own. They've done plenty of promotion to make sure people know it's there, but overexposing it from jump street would have been an album killing mistake.
 
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