What are U2's biggest songs?
5 February 2024, 12:49 | Updated: 1 October 2024, 15:08
With the band appearing on the Grammys 2024 live from their Las Vegas residency, Radio X takes a look at their most-streamed and viewed songs - from their post-punk roots to their stadium-filling superstar years.
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With Or Without You: single release date 16th March 1987
U2 - With Or Without You (Official Music Video)
The most streamed and watched track from the Irish band is without a doubt this 1987 single. It's just a whisker away from a billion streams on Spotify with 977 million plays and over 330 million views on YouTube. The song was released as the lead single from the landmark album The Joshua Tree in the Spring of '87. It's been certified as double Platinum in the UK.
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I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For: single release date 25th May 1987
U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (Official Music Video)
The Joshua Tree's second single from May 1987 is another Platinum hit from U2 in the UK. This gospel-influenced track has amassed over 661 million Spotify streams and over 207 million views on the band's official YouTube channel.
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Beautiful Day: single release date 9th October 2000
U2 - Beautiful Day (Official Music Video)
U2 exploded into the new Millennium with this joyous tune, which was the lead single for their All That You Can't Leave Behind album in 2000. The band's fourth No 1 in the UK, it's since been certified Platinum by the BPI and has been streamed just over half a billion times and watched over 190 million times.
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One: single release date 24th February 1992
U2 - One (Official Music Video)
The track that literally saved the recording sessions for the Achtung Baby album from failure was issued as the album's third single three months after the LP's release. A song inspired by the re-unification of German that was underway at the time of recording - and the band's own troubled relationships with each other - it's been certified Gold in the UK, with over 544 million plays on Spotify and over 161 million views on U2's YouTube channel.
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Sunday Bloody Sunday: release date 28th February 1983
Sunday Bloody Sunday (Live From Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Colorado, USA / 1983 / Remaste...
Never issued as a single in the UK, this track about the Troubles in Northern Ireland gained wider fame when Channel 4's The Tube aired U2's show at Red Rocks in Colorado. Bono symbolically raised the white flag during the song, which led off the breakthrough album War in 1983. In the digital age, Sunday Bloody Sunday has had over 381 million streams and over 59 million YouTube views of the classic Red Rocks performance.
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Pride (In The Name Of Love): single release date 3rd September 1984
U2 - Pride (In The Name Of Love) (Official Music Video)
The lead single from 1984's album The Unforgettable Fire, Pride is a song about the civil rights leader Martin Luther King and was the first U2 song to break the UK Top 5, peaking at No 3. Certified Silver by the BPI, the track has enjoyed over 253 million Spotify streams and over 109 million YouTube video views.
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Where The Streets Have No Name: single release date 31st August 1987
U2 - Where The Streets Have No Name (Official Music Video)
Coupled with a memorable video that saw the band perform live on the roof of a liquor store in Los Angeles, Where The Streets Have No Name is the opening track from The Joshua Tree and the album's third single. A Gold record in the UK, it's had over 186 million Spotify streams and over 66 million YouTube views.
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Vertigo: single release date 8th November 2004
U2 - Vertigo (Official Music Video)
The most recent track on this list, Vertigo was the lead single from the band's eleventh album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb in 2004. Included on an ad for Apple's new generation of iPods, the song was another UK No 1 and has been streamed over 132 million times and viewed over 69 million times.
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Sweetest Thing: single release date 19th October 1998
U2 - Sweetest Thing (Official Music Video)
Originally released as the B-side to Where The Streets Have No Name in 1987, this track was dusted down and re-recorded for U2's 1998 compilation The Best Of 1980-1990. A song about Bono forgetting his wife Ali's birthday, the accompanying video saw the singer try to make amends to his missus with a series of increasingly extravagant gestures. A Top 5 hit in the UK, the song has had over 132 million Spotify streams and over 61 million YouTube views.
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Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of: single release date 29th January 2001
U2 - Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of (Official Music Video)
Written about the death of Bono's friend Michael Hutchence, singer with U2, this moving song made No 2 in the charts when it was released as the second single from All That You Can't Leave Behind in January of 2001. On Spotify, the song has been streamed over 125 million times and viewed on YouTube over 9 million times.
