With or Without You

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“With or Without You”
Single by U2 from the album The Joshua Tree
Released	March 1987
Format	7" vinyl, 12" vinyl, cassette, CD
Recorded	Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin, Ireland 1986
Genre	Rock
Length	4:56
Label	Island
Producer	Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois
U2 singles chronology
"The Unforgettable Fire" (1985) "With or Without You" (1987) "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (1987)
The Joshua Tree track listing
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (2) "With or Without You" (3) "Bullet the Blue Sky" (4)
The Best of 1980-1990 track listing
"New Year's Day" (2) "With or Without You" (3) "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (4)
U218 Singles track listing
"Pride (In the Name of Love)" (3) "With or Without You" (4) "Vertigo" (5)

"With or Without You" is the lead single from U2's 1987 album, The Joshua Tree. It has since become highly-acclaimed as one of the band's most popular songs. Released as a single in March 1987, it became the group's first American #1 hit, spending three weeks at the top. It also reached #4 in the UK.

"With or Without You" is widely considered one of U2's most overtly emotional songs. According to Bono, the song was heavily influenced by Scott Walker's album Climate of Hunter.[1] It was U2's first single to be widely issued on CD. The song is U2's second most frequently covered song.^[1]

In addition to topping the Billboard Hot 100, the song reached #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and was the second U2 song to enter any other Billboard chart (specifically, the Adult Contemporary chart) after "Pride (In the Name of Love)". In addition, the song spent eleven weeks in the top 75 of the UK Singles Chart.

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed the single at number 131 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.^[2]

Composition

 Music sample:

U2 "With or Without You" (1987)

30 second sample from U2's "With or Without You"

Problems listening to the file? See media help.

"With or Without You" is written in the key of D major. There are large sections of the song where the harmony rests on the D chord; in the sections it does not, the band implies a D - A/C# - Bm7 - Gsus2 chord progression. This chord progression is implied by the roots notes played by bassist Adam Clayton and the guitar parts of The Edge. The Edge's sustained guitar part is achieved using a device dubbed "Infinite Guitar". The Edge explained, "It has a similar effect to the E-Bow, but the disadvantage of the E-Bow is that it's either on or off, whereas this gives you all the mid-points between no sustain and infinite sustain, and different levels of 'emergence' of the note."^[3]

Live history

"With or Without You" was first played live at the second show on the Joshua Tree Tour on 4 April 1987, and was a regular for the rest of that tour. It was played at most shows on 1989's Lovetown Tour. During these tours, two extension to the song not present on the studio version were played: an extra verse with lyrics that typically read "we'll shine like stars in the summer night/we'll shine like stars in the winter light/one heart, one hope, one love" or modifications thereof,^[4] which appears on the Rattle and Hum movie; and a snippet of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart". Since the PopMart Tour, it has been more common for Bono to repeat the "Ohh" at the climax of the song, with the "shine like stars" verse sung rarely.

"With or Without You" was played at most Zoo TV Tour concerts and every concert on the PopMart Tour. It was dropped from the setlist during the third leg of the Elevation Tour, and was initially a rare inclusion during the Vertigo Tour - over the two months of the Vertigo Tour's first leg, it was only played four times.^[5] It became a regular concert inclusion during stadium concerts on the second leg in Europe and remained in the setlist for the third leg.

Unlike most songs in U2's live catalogue, this song has been played with several different guitars, with Edge seeming to pick a new model for each tour. Over the Joshua Tree Tour, Lovetown Tour and early legs of the Zoo TV Tour, he used a Fender Stratocaster. For later legs of the Zoo TV Tour, he switched to the Gibson Les Paul Custom. He started on the PopMart Tour his now trend of using Fernandes guitars to perform the song. On the PopMart Tour, Elevation Tour and Vertigo Tour, he has used (respectively) the Decade, Native Pro and Retrorocket Elite models. Each one is equipped with a special sustainer, which is why they are used for this song. The Fernandes models have frequently been the only guitars Edge purchases new, as opposed to the rest of his guitar collection, which are all vintage models.

Track listings

1. "With or Without You" – 4:56
2. "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)" – 4:34
3. "Walk to the Water" – 4:48

Chart positions

Cover versions

• Mary Kiani performed her own cover of the song and released it as a single in 1997. Promotional copies included a quote by The Edge approving the cover in name of the whole band. The song was included on her 1997 album Long Hard Funky Dreams.
• British synthpop group Heaven 17 recorded a cover of the song for the 1999 tribute album We Will Follow: A Tribute To U2.
• The song was covered by the English rock musician, and the frontman of The Mission, Wayne Hussey, in his solo album "Bare" in 2008.
• A cappella group the Virginia Gentlemen at the University of Virginia recorded a cover of "With or Without You" for their 1999 album Bizarro World.
• The song was covered by Hamish Cowan, and used during a funeral scene in the 2000 Australian film Looking For Alibrandi.
• The song was covered in 1999 by Canadian punk band Les Nerds.
• A version of this song was recorded by the group Gregorian for their 2003 album Masters of Chant Chapter IV.
• A hi-NRG/dance cover of the song by Cover Girlz was included on the compilation Pop Back To The 80's, released through the Almighty Records label.
• GRITS and Jadyn Maria covered the song for the 2004 compilation In the Name of Love: Artists United for Africa.
• The song was covered by the Belgian choir Scala & Kolacny Brothers in 2005.
• Filipino bossa nova singer Sitti recorded a cover of this song for her second album My Bossa Nova in 2007.
• The song was covered as a jazz tune by Michelle Simonal.
• Marcus Satellite covered the song on his album The Marcus Satellite Tribute To U2. The vocals were performed by Jacqueline van Bierk of Otto's Daughter, a Los Angeles-based cyber-pop-metal band.
• Glay recorded a cover version of the song for their 42nd single Verb.
• American screamo electro band Breathe Carolina made a cover of this song in 2008, and made it available for free download from their MySpace page.
• Diana Vickers (X Factor UK 2008 finalist) covered the song in the first live show.

Live cover performances

• The song was revived by a couple of artists in live performances, including famous Japanese Pop singer/songwriter, Hikaru Utada. ^[6]
• British band Keane covered the song on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.
• Kane covered the song on their live CD/DVD album With or Without You.
• American rock band Finch recorded a live version of this song.
• Wizard Rock artist Matt Maggiaccomo (A.K.A. The Whomping Willows) frequently covers portions of the song during live performances of "Draco and Harry (Secretly Want To Make Out)".

Sampling, parodies, etc.

• Dance act, LMC created the hit song "Take Me To The Clouds Above". It contains the With or Without You bass line and lead guitar although at a much faster pace.
• Jon Schmidt, a pianist, wrote a remix called "Pachelbel Meets U2", named after "Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D and U2's "With or Without You".
• American electronica/metal indie band Breathe Carolina did a cover of this song.
• Christian rock band Third Day, included a part of the chorus in a medley on their album Offerings II: All I Have To Give.
• Jawbreaker recorded a song called "With or Without U2".
• The Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation named an episode after this song.

Appearances in other media

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (June 2008)

• It was used extensively during the fourth season episode of 21 Jump Street, "La Bizca" in which Doug Penhall and Tom Hanson go El Salvador to find Penhall's wife. The song was replaced by genric instrumentals in the DVD release due to copyright issues.
• The song was played during a scene in the Tommy Lee Jones movie, Blown Away, during a bomb building scene.
• The song was used in an episode of Cold Case.
• The song was played in the French Thriller Tell No One during a pivotal point in the plot.
• It was featured three times on the hit TV show Friends. It was the song for two of the characters Ross and Rachel and was played on both occasions when Ross and Rachel broke up. Ross sends in a request to local radio station for Rachel to hear, and also when Ross and Rachel go 'on a break' (though Rachel disputes this throughout the series, creating the catchphrase "We Were On A Break!") and Ross is in a bar dancing with the 'girl from the XEROX place', Chloe. Rachel later admits that it is "their song".The first half-minute was also played when they had their first kiss, in Central Perk.
• It was also featured in the episode "Valentine's Day" of NBC's The Office in the background of an amateur video compilation of office life at Dunder-Mifflin entitled "Faces of Scranton".

Notes

External links

• U2.com entry
• All Music Guide entry
• U2Wanderer.org entry
• U2Gigs.com's record of every live performance of With Or Without You
• "With or Without You" video at YouTube