With or Without You

"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. There are two videos shot for this song: 'basic' and 'alternative' videos, the rest is being released on 'The Joshua Tree' 20th anniversary super deluxe edition bonus DVD.

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), being "Pride (In the Name of Love)" the first song of the band to enter a Billboard Chart peaking a #33 in the Hot 100 back in 1984 [2]. In addition, the song spent eleven weeks in the top 75 of the UK Singles Chart. "With or Without You" is also widely considered one of U2's most overtly emotional songs.

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

1 Composition
2 Live history
3 Track listings
4 Chart positions
5 Cover versions and uses in popular culture
- 5.1 Cover versions
- 5.2 Uses in popular culture
6 Notes and references
7 External links

[edit] 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-Bm-G 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]

[edit] Live history

"With or Without You" debuted live at the second show on the Joshua Tree Tour on 4 April 1987. It then became a regular for the rest of that year's tour, and was played at most shows on 1989's Lovetown Tour. During this time, it became famous for two additions not present on the studio version. Although The Edge's solo fades out on the studio version, it would often build up to an extra verse live. The lyrics were typically a lyric which reads "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, and for this reason, fans often refer to this verse as "Shine Like Stars".[3] It can be heard on the Rattle and Hum movie. This verse would then sometimes be followed by the second non-studio addition, a snippet of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart". From the PopMart Tour onwards, it has been more common for Bono to repeat the "Ohh" at the climax of the song, with "Shine Like Stars" being sung very rarely.

"With or Without You" was played at almost every single concert on the Zoo TV Tour and did not miss a concert on the PopMart Tour. However, it was dropped from the setlist during the third leg of the Elevation Tour, and was initially a very rare inclusion during the Vertigo Tour - over the two months of the Vertigo Tour's first leg, it was only played four times.^[4] However, it regained its status of being a regular concert inclusion during stadium concerts on the second leg in Europe and remained in the setlist for the third leg. Notably, it was used to conclude one third leg show: the last time it closed a concert was in 1992.

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 (and subsequently, new sound) 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.

[edit] Track listings

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

[edit] Chart positions

Chart (1987)	Position
US Singles Chart	1
UK Singles Chart	4
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks	1
U.S. Adult Contemporary	23

Preceded by "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" by Cutting Crew	Billboard Hot 100 number one single May 16, 1987- May 30, 1987	Succeeded by "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by Kim Wilde
Preceded by "La Isla Bonita" by Madonna	United World Chart number one single May 30, 1987	Succeeded by "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" by Whitney Houston

[edit] Cover versions and uses in popular culture

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[edit] Cover versions

GRITS covered the song on In the Name of Love: Artists United for Africa.
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".
The song was revived by a couple of artists in live performances, including famous Japanese Pop singer/songwriter, Utada Hikaru. ^[5]
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.
The a cappella group the Virginia Gentlemen at the University of Virginia did a cover of "With or Without You".
A version of this song has been released by the group Gregorian.
American, Electronica/Metal Indie band Breathe Carolina did a cover of this song.
British band Keane covered the song on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.
The Christian rock band Third Day, included a part of the chorus in a medley on their album Offerings II: All I Have To Give.
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.
Kane covered the song on their live CD/DVD album With or Without You.
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.
Philippine bossa nova singer Sitti recorded a cover of this song for her second album My Bossa Nova.
American rock band Finch recorded a live version of this song.
Jawbreaker recorded a song called "With or Without U2"

[edit] Uses in popular culture

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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 covered by Hamish Cowan and used during a funeral scene in the Australian film Looking For Alibrandi.
It was featured twice 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 Weren't 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".
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".