There have been some occasions in music history when a band’s popularity sometimes hustles ahead of its pop chart success. Foreign bands trying to break out in the United States often encounter this phenomenon.
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U2 already felt like one of the biggest bands in the world before they enjoyed a huge US pop hit. They finally got over the hump with a song paying tribute to an American icon.
Early European Chart Success
U2 emerged from Ireland with their debut album, Boy, in 1980. Many characteristics for which the band would become known were already in place, from Bono’s bellows to The Edge’s ringing guitars. They were already delivering anthemic songs, and the hits were bound to follow.
In the UK, those hits started appearing pretty quickly. U2 accomplished a pair of Top 10 singles overseas on their 1981 album October. The momentum kept rolling in 1983, when “New Year’s Day” and “Two Hearts Beat As One” both went to No. 2 in the UK.
Many songs from the band’s first three albums have now become rock and roll standards, including “New Year’s Day”, “I Will Follow”, and “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. But none did much in the US. (“New Year’s Day” did the best, topping out at No. 53.)
An ‘Unforgettable’ Hit
Based on the overall direction of their 1984 album The Unforgettable Fire, U2 didn’t seem too concerned about recording hit singles. The album, produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, featured complex textures and hooks that often went back underground as soon as they showed themselves.
But there was one song that seemed to stand out from the pack as a potential hit. Its music originated during a soundcheck before a 1983 concert. With The Edge’s rafter-scraping guitar sound and Larry Mullen Jr.’s thundercrack drums, the band had clearly delivered a track that was made for car radios.
Getting the lyrics right was a struggle for Bono. He originally was writing a negative screed about then-US President Ronald Reagan. But he decided that the music called for something more uplifting. That’s when he switched it up and started writing about the fate of Martin Luther King Jr. Finally, “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” took shape.
U2’s “Pride”
The Edge initially worried about the direction of the lyrics, fearing that they might skew too political. But once he heard them against the music, he knew that the band had something special. They released “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” as the first single from The Unforgettable Fire.
It’s somewhat odd to think now that the song only made it to No. 33 in the US. Granted, that still marked the first time that U2 ever reached the Top 40 in America. But considering how large the song now looms in the band’s legend, you might have guessed that it did much better.
Their next time around, U2 would start to dominate the US charts. On their 1987 album The Joshua Tree, they focused more on songwriting and less on too much atmosphere. The result was back-to-back No. 1 singles in America with “With Or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”.
Photo by © Aaron Rapoport/CORBIS OUTLINE/Corbis via Getty Images
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