How would you rank the lead singles?

[Catman]

Okay, so this isn't a ranking of songs according to their quality, but merely, IMO, how I feel they stand as "first singles" - not *just* in their catchiness, but also what they brought to the table in terms of the band's image.

1.) Pride (In the Name of Love)
2.) Beautiful Day
3.) Vertigo
4.) Desire
5.) With or Without You
6.) New Year's Day
7.) The Fly (this and GOYB are close, but I'm giving the nod to "The Fly" because, it seems, U2 were more highly respected and successful (but less commercial compared to their recent output) as musicians during the early 90's, thus making this song particularly more intriguing as a lead single)
8.) Get On Your Boots (still quite like it)
9.) Discotheque
10.) Numb
11.) A Day Without Me
12.) Fire

 

[TheEdge1967]

If I were U2 these would have been my lead off singles:

Joshua Tree - Steets
Achtung Baby - The Fly (good pick)
Zooropa - Zooropa
Pop - Discotheque (good pick)
ATYCLB - Beautiful Day (Another good pick)
Atomic Bomb - Original Of the Species or Love and Peace

 

[paultjr]

With or Without You (Hands down the song that started this whole U2 craze for me)
Pride
The Fly
Beautiful Day

....and then the rest.

 

[Bean Skidds]

1. The Fly
2. New Years Day
3. Pride
4. Desire
5. Discotheque
6. With Or Without You
7. Beautiful Day
8. Numb
9. Get On Your Boots
10. Vertigo
11. A Day Without Me
12. Fire

 

[theFly51]

1) The Fly
2) Everything Else

 

[zbales]

1) With or Without You (best song ever?)
2) Beautiful Day
3) The Fly
4) Pride
5) Vertigo
6) Desire
7) GOYB
8) New Year's Day
9) Numb
10) Discotheque
11) A Day Without Me
12) Fire

 

[Muldfeld]

I've only been into the band long enough to have witnessed the premiere of Numb. When a friend told me about the new U2 song, which I hadn't heard, he downloaded it, and I was really, really disappointed. Then it picked up for me slightly when I got the album, but I've never liked it much, how much I tried in the year or so after getting the album. The back to basics shift without the texture or subtlety of The Joshua Tree or even War really hurt my fandom.

1. With or Without You
2. The Fly (The kind of quality I hoped GOYB would be)
3. Pride
4. New Year's Day
5. Desire
6. Numb

And then in distant place:
7. Discotheque
8. Get On Your Boots

And then far off into the distance
9. Beautiful Day
10. A Day Without Me
11. Fire
12. Vertigo

 

[astepcloser24]

Lyrically, "The Fly," "Vertigo," and "Beautiful Day" are amazing. GOYB is okay, but not their best tune.

 

[ultraviolet353]

Of the ones I heard when they came out...

The Fly (by far the best, that riff opened up a new world for me, and set the tone for the decade)
Pride
Electrical Storm (if you can count that one)
Beautiful Day
WOWY
Numb
Get on Your Boots
Desire
Discotheque (Loved, hated, now starting to like again)
Vertigo (the one I really can say, I do not care for all that much)

 

[U2FanPeter]

Zero love for "Miss Sarajevo"?

 

[yenlard]

Lyrically, "The Fly," "Vertigo," and "Beautiful Day" are amazing. GOYB is okay, but not their best tune.

i wouldnt call vertigo a lyrically amazing song. the other two i can say are pretty good. the fly's sound puts it ahead of beautiful day for me.

 

[JoRu]

1. With Or Without You
2. Beautiful Day
3. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
4. Get On Your Boots
5. Vertigo

...and down below somewhere is Numb, one of the worst U2 songs I've ever heard. It's not because it's Edge singing, I love Van Diemen's Land, but it's simply a really bad song IMO. Zooropa in general feels very weak to me.

 

[AndrewCowley]

I'd put WOWY at the top, by a long way. JT was the album that more than any other single album defined the path U2 have taken. And WOWY was the lead single. When it came out you just knew that all hell was going to break out and U2 were going to get seriously 'mega'. In this sense, rating the lead singles is more involved than measuring them as songs. WOWY was the start of the JT era.