U2 - With Or Without You

"We were really nervous when we chose the first single," The Edge admitted to NME. "In the end, 'With or without you' was the most obvious choice and the one with the fewest conditions. Not only was it far from the hits that were playing on the radio at that time, but it was also a departure from them. Everything what the band had done before and what audiences were used to was different. With or Without You, a mid-tempo track that introduced a new approach to the band's sound, quickly became the Irish quartet's biggest hit until But creating the unique sound of The Joshua Tree (1987) as their first single wasn't easy. The band even considered stopping recording because they couldn't find what they were looking for.

When U2 released their fifth album, The Joshua Tree, in early March 1987, it topped the charts in 20 countries. Their rise ended on May 16 of that year, when "With or Without You" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. By then, they were major stars in their native Ireland and later in England, but had little success in the United States. United during his ten years of career. "It was clear from the beginning that there was something special about him," Bono told Rolling Stone. In the documentary U2: The Joshua Tree (Classic Albums), he recalls how many fans found the sound strange. "Looking back, I realize that I wasn't paying attention to everything around me. It's crazy... 'Are you there or not' is a song with a very strange tone that feels like it's whispering to the world "And this strange guitar part... it was a special recording."