OOTS showing up on U.S. radio
I have no idea if this is due to another "informal" single release for the U.S. or just a result of the I-pod thing, but OOTS showed up on Wednesday's Radio and Record Chart for Triple A radio as "most adds" and "going for adds".
COBL is still in pretty heavy rotation on Triple A and it's No. 1 on the "recurrent" chart, as it's passed the 6 month maximum on the main radio charts. As for OOTS, we'll see what happens, but once again, no formal announcement or promotion for the song in the U.S. Apparently that's OK with U2 and Interscope, as this has been the case after Vertigo and ABOY. Sometimes, COBL, and now maybe OOTS were really just kindof "put out there" with a music video and an unofficial release to a few select radio formats only.
I still think this is a shame, as HTDAAB is a very good collection of songs, and most of them deserve to be on the radio versus the crap that rules the airwaves these days. Yeah, U2 might have to fight to get on the radio with some promotion, but that's what it takes these days. The only rational explanation I could accept regarding the pathetic singles strategy for the U.S. is that maybe U2 realized that they were very near to "over exposure" & felt a backlash coming after the whole Vertigo/I-POD campaign that lead to front-loaded sales and several jabs from critics about hearing Vertigo 1M times, selling out, etc. If their objective was to get out of the spotlight associated with promoting songs, then they sure succeeded.
They are also widely recognized as having a landmark, record breaking tour, and as Larry says, "Live is where we live". It's also happens to be a huge source of income that far outweighs what they could have gained in albums sales with a few more hit singles, so they made the right financial decision too, I guess.
It's also fair to note that the official, worldwide singles from HTDAAB have done very well in the R.O.T.W., where radio still seems to love U2. Oh well, if OOTS makes any significant gains on U.S. radio charts, I'll keep you posted.