With or Without You

"With or Without You" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the third track on their fifth studio album, The Joshua Tree (1987), and was released as the album's lead single on 16 March 1987. The song was the group's most successful single at the time, becoming their first number-one hit in both the United States and Canada by topping the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and the RPM national singles chart for one week, with a further three weeks at number two.

"With or Without You" features sustained guitar parts played by guitarist the Edge with a prototype of the Infinite Guitar, along with vocals by lead singer Bono and a bassline by bassist Adam Clayton. The rock ballad originated from a demo recorded in late 1985 that the group continued to work on throughout The Joshua Tree sessions. Ostensibly a song about troubled love, the track's lyrics were inspired by Bono's conflicting feelings about the lives he led as a musician and domestic man.

Critics praised the song upon its release. It is frequently performed on the band's tours, and it has appeared on many of their compilation albums and concert films. "With or Without You" is U2's second most frequently covered song. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song 131st on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Writing and recording

In late 1985, U2 convened at a house that drummer Larry Mullen Jr. bought to review material the group had written during The Unforgettable Fire Tour. During this time, a rough demo of "With or Without You" was written, with lead vocalist Bono composing the song's chord sequence. The band continued to work on the song at STS Studios, creating many permutations of the track, but not making any progress. Guitarist the Edge considered the song at that point to be "awful". According to Clayton, these early versions of the song sounded too sentimental and "very traditional because the chords just went round and round and round". The instrument allowed sustained notes to be played, producing "a similar effect to the E-Bow", but with the ability to provide all the "mid-points between no sustain and infinite sustain" that the E-Bow cannot provide.

Producer Steve Lillywhite was hired by U2 in December 1986 to help mix some songs for The Joshua Tree; "With or Without You" was one of them. While Lillywhite and engineer Mark Wallis were mixing it, Eno entered the room and told them that he wanted to change the introduction. Wallis said: "And it was kind of awe-inspiring because he said, 'Right, send this guitar through those ten effects over there and send that guitar through those ten effects over there and then feed them back to each other.' So what started as a traditional bit of rhythm guitar, bass, and drums suddenly became something quite otherworldly and spiritual, and the sound of the music you were hearing started to give you a feeling of where the song was going to go prior to the lyric. I thought that was really visionary." Ultimately, "With or Without You" was the most debated song of those on which Lillywhite worked, as Eno and Lanois each had ideas different from his. Lillywhite, who wanted a more mainstream approach to his mix, favoured "a little more crash, bang" sound to Mullen's drums that enter later in the song, while Eno preferred that the drums remain "more mysterious and more supportive".

Bono wrote the lyrics during his first night visiting the Côte d'Azur in 1986, while struggling to reconcile his responsibilities as both a married man and a musician. Although certain stanzas of lyrics are repeated, the song does not follow a traditional verse-chorus form. Lanois says of it, "It has tension and builds like one of those great Roy Orbison songs, where every section is unique and never repeats. I like that kind of sophistication [...]." A high sustained guitar part (played by The Edge's Infinite Guitar) enters, played "dry" in the left channel before reverberating on the right. At 0:58, an additional sustained guitar part joins the mix. The second time the figure is played, the signature guitar riff from earlier re-appears and the song regains some of its intensity. Toby Creswell echoed these sentiments, saying it "can be read as a song about either marital romance or spiritual need". According to Bono, the song was heavily influenced by Scott Walker's 1984 album Climate of Hunter. The single was released on 16 March 1987, two weeks after the album was released. It was the group's first single to be widely issued on compact disc. it topped the chart to become U2's first number-one single in the US, proving Friday's prediction true. and 18 weeks in total on the Hot 100. Canada's RPM Top 100, and the Irish Singles Chart. In 2009, the song re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number 43 on the week ending 31 May, based on download sales due to Shaun Smith's performance of the song in the series 3 semi-final of Britain's Got Talent.

Two videos were shot in Dublin in February 1987 and were co-directed by Meiert Avis and Matt Mahurin. The first includes abstracts shots of dancer (and Edge's future wife) Morleigh Steinberg edited in between shots of the band playing the song. A second alternative version can be found in the Super Deluxe version of the album. On 15 March 2024, the song became the first U2 song to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify.

Live performances

thumb|right|upright|Lighting effects during a performance of "With or Without You" on the [[U2 360° Tour.]]

"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 extensions 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, which appears in the 1988 Rattle and Hum movie; and a snippet of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (along with the "shine like stars" lyrics) which can be heard in the live album and concert film Live from Paris. 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 set list during the third leg of the Elevation Tour. It was initially a rare inclusion during the Vertigo Tour - over the two months of the tour's first leg, it was only played four times. It became a regular concert inclusion during stadium concerts on the second leg in Europe and remained in the set list for the third leg. It has been played on every night of the U2 360° Tour, occasionally with the "shine like stars" coda. The song regularly closed out the main set on the Innocence + Experience Tour, again occasionally with the "shine like stars" coda. The song was performed at every concert on The Joshua Tree Tours 2017 and 2019. It was also performed at all 40 shows of their 2023–2024 residency U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere in the Las Vegas Valley.

Live performances of the song also appear in the group's concert films Zoo TV: Live from Sydney (1994), PopMart: Live from Mexico City (1998), Elevation 2001: Live from Boston, U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle, Ireland (2003), Vertigo 05: Live from Milan (2006), U2 3D (2008), and U2360° at the Rose Bowl (2010).

Reception

The song received universal acclaim from critics. Rolling Stone called it an "inventively arranged tune... that builds from a soothing beginning to a resounding climax". Bill Graham of Hot Press praised the song, suggesting it may be Bono's "most controlled vocal, building from an almost conversational first verse over a bare rhythm section to a soul-baring confession". Graham suggested the lyric "And you give yourself away" was essential to U2's message. The Sunday Independent suggested that the song was proof the band could be commercially accessible, yet not resort to rock clichés. NME called it "some kind of love song" and found musical and lyrical symmetry between the song and the group's 1981 album October.

Mike DeGagne of AllMusic praised the song for Eno's and Lanois's "gleaming" production work, Bono's vocals and "poetic deftness", and for The Edge's "astute but assertive" guitar playing. DeGagne described Bono's singing as "unleashing all his vocal power, moving from a soft, subtle intro and middle to an explosive burst of unyielding energy toward the end". He made religious comparisons to the musical arrangement, saying the "discerning air sounds almost church-like as it slowly unravels". Tom Breihan of Stereogum described the song as a power ballad with a "beautiful" build. "It hits all the marks that power ballads are supposed to hit — the soft beginning, the slow ramp-up, the eventual catharsis — but it makes those beats feel instinctive, not cynical. Nothing about “With or Without You” feels cynical. It feels like a great unburdening, a pent-up howl at the heavens. It’s operatic nonsense, and it’s great spectacle." Readers of Rolling Stone voted "With or Without You" the "Best Single" in a 1987 end-of-year poll,

Legacy

"With or Without You" has become one of U2's best-known songs, and it often appears in music critics' rankings of the best songs of all-time. In 2000, the song appeared at number eight on Rolling Stones list of "100 Greatest Pop Songs", compiled by Rolling Stone and MTV music critics to rank songs released since The Beatles' breakthrough. In 2005, Blender ranked the song at number 268 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born". The following year, readers of Q voted "With or Without You" the 17th-greatest song in history. In 2012, Slant Magazine listed "With or Without You" as the 40th best single of the 1980s. Music television network VH1 ranked the song number 13 on the "100 Greatest Songs of the 80s" countdown in its series The Greatest. In 2004, Rolling Stone placed the song at number 131 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time"; the song was re-ranked to 132nd on the magazine's 2010 version of the list, and to 211th on the 2021 version. The song appeared as one of seven U2 songs in Toby Creswell's 2006 music reference book 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories, and Secrets. Creswell said the song struck a perfect balance between the "vigour and spit and attitude" of the group's teenage years and their new-found appreciation for the "power of understatement". and in 2020, The Guardian ranked the song number four on their list of the 40 greatest U2 songs. U2 included the song on their compilation albums The Best of 1980–1990 (1998) and U218 Singles (2006) and reworked and re-recorded it for Songs of Surrender (2023). In 2022, Vulture placed the song at number 12 on its ranking of all 234 U2 songs.

In popular culture

In the NBC sitcom Friends, the song is the theme song of the relationship between Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) and Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston). It is first played in the 1995 season 2 episode "The One with the List", wherein Ross apologizes to Rachel for the list he made in which he described the negative attributes of Rachel. Rachel then prevents the song from continuing after ringing up the radio station, informing them about what Ross did.

The song is featured in the 1994 film Blown Away, as well as in "START", the 2018 season 6 series finale episode of the series The Americans.

A piano cover of the song featured in series 4, episode 6 of the series Sex Education in 2023.

Track listing

Personnel

Bono – vocals
The Edge – guitar
Adam Clayton – bass guitar
Larry Mullen Jr. – drums

Additional personnel

Daniel Lanois – production, tambourine
Brian Eno – keyboards, DX7 programming, production
Flood – recording
Pat McCarthy – recording assistance
Steve Lillywhite – mixing

Charts

Weekly charts

{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"

|+Weekly chart performance for "With or Without You"

! Chart (1987–1988)

! Peak<br />position

!scope="row"|Australia (Kent Music Report)

!scope="row"|Europe (European Hot 100 Singles)

!scope="row"|Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)

!scope="row"|Italy (Musica e dischi)

|18

!scope="row"|Italy Airplay (Music & Media)

| 2

!scope="row"|South Africa (Springbok Radio)

|11

!scope="row"|Spain (AFYVE)

!scope="row"|UK Airplay (Music & Media)

| 1

!scope="row"|US Album Rock Tracks (Billboard)

!scope="row"|US Cash Box Top 100

Year-end charts

{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+1987 year-end chart performance for "With or Without You"

! Chart (1987)

! Position

!scope="row"|Australia (Australia Music Report)

|67

!scope="row"|Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)

|30

!scope="row"|Europe (European Hot 100 Singles)

!scope="row"|Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)

|19

!scope="row"|Netherlands (Single Top 100)

|10

!scope="row"|New Zealand (RIANZ)

|32

!scope="row"|UK Singles (OCC)

|45

!scope="row"|US Billboard Hot 100

|15

!scope="row"|US Album Rock Tracks (Billboard)

!scope="row"|US Cash Box Top 100

|12

!scope="row"|West Germany (Media Control)

|32

{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+2012 year-end chart performance for "With or Without You"

! Chart (2012)

! Position

!scope="row"|France (SNEP)

|195

Certifications

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

External links

"With or Without You" lyrics and performances at U2.com