Bono Wrote This Hit for U2 as an Apology to His Wife

In 1998, U2 had a No. 1 song with “Sweetest Thing”. The song, originally the B-side of “Where The Streets Have No Name”, first came out in 1987. The song was written for Joshua Tree, although it ended up not making it onto the album at the time. But in 1998, U2 released The Best Of 1980-1990, the band’s first compilation of hits. 

The only single from the record, “Sweetest Thing” is credited as being written by the members of U2. But it’s lead singer Bono who had the idea for “Sweetest Thing”.  The song says, “I wanted to run, but she made me crawl / Oh oh oh, the sweetest thing / Eternal fire, she turned me to straw / Oh oh, the sweetest thing / I know I got black eyes / But they burn so brightly for her / I guess it’s a blind kind of love / Oh oh oh, the sweetest thing.”

When Bono had the idea for “Sweetest Thing”, it was not during a romantic moment. Instead, the singer-songwriter was trying to make amends to his wife, Ali Hewson, after forgetting her 25th birthday.

What Bono Says About His Marriage to Ali Hewson

It’s Hewson who appears at the beginning of the video for “Sweetest Thing”. The entire video is about an over-the-top apology.

Bono acknowledges that being married to the lead singer of a band was not what Hewson envisioned for herself.

“Ali would have been happier with a life that was simpler than the one we’ve ended up with,” Bono says in his 2022 memoir, Surrender. “And it wasn’t long into our marriage that I began to sense she was becoming distant from the life we were living. Though not demanding in any selfish way, Ali had never been ‘just’ my girlfriend, and now she was never going to be ‘just’ my wife. Neither of us knew what the word ‘wife’ meant anyhow, nor had any sense of how valuable this relationship was going to be for each of us.”

Married young, Bono admits that it was not easy for either of them in the beginning, especially Hewson.

“We were up for the ride, but there were air pockets from the beginning, like, say, my immaturity,” Bono concedes. “Married at 22 going on 18. She was also realizing that there were three other men in her marriage. Men whom she was more than fond of, but men who were taking her man away, not just in his wild imaginings, but physically, all over the world.”

Since Bono wrote “Sweetest Thing” for Hewson, she made sure proceeds from the song went to Chernobyl Children International, one of her favorite charities.

Photo by Patrick Ford/Redferns