vs

I hadn’t heard the first one but I really dislike the guys voice even if it’s a decent song. The U2 song is in my yearly rotation for sure.

Baby, please Come Home in all it's incarnations is on my Christmas playlist be it Darlene Love, Michael Bublé or U2.

I submitted the Darlene Love on David Letterman mash-up version, this is close enough and Bono does a good job with it, U2.

Despite U2 being an enormous band who have been around for decades, I could only name two or three of their songs, and I think the average person in the street wouldn't be able to name many more.

At least now I can name one more U2 song than I could before. It's not very good though.

Dec 16, 2020 19:59:46 GMT Emperor said:

Despite U2 being an enormous band who have been around for decades, I could only name two or three of their songs, and I think the average person in the street wouldn't be able to name many more.

At least now I can name one more U2 song than I could before. It's not very good though.

Sunday Bloody Sunday
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
With Or Without You
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Where The Streets Have No Name
Desire
Mysterious Ways
One
Beautiful Day

at a bare minimum for even casual radio listeners... how can they be an enormous band yet only have 2 or 3 songs resonate with the average joe?

Dec 16, 2020 19:59:46 GMT Emperor said:

Despite U2 being an enormous band who have been around for decades, I could only name two or three of their songs, and I think the average person in the street wouldn't be able to name many more.

At least now I can name one more U2 song than I could before. It's not very good though.

IM Fun Fact #3:  With or Without You is my favorite song bar none.

I can name about 20 U2 songs but I get what you are saying.  If you asked a random someone 10 years+ younger than me they probably couldn't even name one.

Beautiful Day, Vertigo and Sunday Bloody Sunday are the only ones I could name.

Are there any pop rock bands you could name more than 3 songs for Emp? It's not really your cup of tea is it?

I couldn't name one Dream Theatre song for comparison's sakes. Nothing against the band, heard nothing but great things but just haven't gotten around to them.

My point is that U2 are a huge band. most other bands/artists with the same name recognition of U2 have a bunch of very well-known songs. I'm not sure that's the case for U2. At least in my perception.

I remember one occasion when I was watching a quiz show called Pointless. The question was to name U2 songs, and the score would be based on how many random people out of 100 also named those songs. The lower the score the better. Almost none of the contestants could name a song. Think Beautiful Day and maybe one other song went, then they were clueless. Even those U2 songs scored pretty low.

Dec 17, 2020 11:34:01 GMT Emperor said:

Beautiful Day, Vertigo and Sunday Bloody Sunday are the only ones I could name.

This is fascinating. I would have thought With or Without You or One would have been their most well known songs - they even sing them on shows like the X Factor. I’d say the truth is somewhere in between, as I do think it’s fair to say you don’t pay a lot of attention to things you don’t care about, but it’s also fair enough that, certainly amongst a younger generation, people don’t know a whole lot of U2 songs.

I don't think it necessarily makes U2 unique, I reckon the same people would struggle to name more than three songs for The Rolling Stones, Nirvana or Elvis. It's just a sign of what happens to bands/acts when they're out of the public eye. Queen would have easily fallen under the same problem had it not been for Bohemian Rhapsody which led to a renaissance not once but twice.

Shootist isn't joking about the bare minimum part. Elevation, The Saints Are Coming, Sweetest Thing and Desire were used in so many ads and broadcasts down here and the list just keeps going on and on.

Dec 17, 2020 12:24:18 GMT Big Pete said:

Are there any pop rock bands you could name more than 3 songs for Emp? It's not really your cup of tea is it?

I couldn't name one Dream Theatre song for comparison's sakes. Nothing against the band, heard nothing but great things but just haven't gotten around to them.

There are exceptions a big one being Iron Maiden. I don't think the average person on the street could name one, maybe Run To The Hills.

I can name a ton of Rolling Stones/Nirvana/Elvis/Queen songs, and these are bands I don't listen to actively.

I'd only first heard With or Without You when it popped up on the rock ballads tournament a few months back. Just listened to One. Don't recognise it at all. Elevation. Oh yeah, immediately recognise it on the intro. Sweetest Things...nope. I tapped out after that. Unbelievably bland are U2. How'd they get so big?

My theory is that U2 is an invisible band. People may know the tunes without realising it's U2.

Emperor you need to check out their pre POP albums like War, Boy, etc. Honestly after Joshua Tree I checked out of U2. New Year's Day, Sunday Bloody Sunday and of course With or Without You are probably my 3 favorite songs by them.

Dec 17, 2020 21:21:23 GMT Emperor said:

I can name a ton of Rolling Stones/Nirvana/Elvis/Queen songs, and these are bands I don't listen to actively.

I'd only first heard With or Without You when it popped up on the rock ballads tournament a few months back. Just listened to One. Don't recognise it at all. Elevation. Oh yeah, immediately recognise it on the intro. Sweetest Things...nope. I tapped out after that. Unbelievably bland are U2. How'd they get so big?

My theory is that U2 is an invisible band. People may know the tunes without realising it's U2.

That's odd about One, not only was it a hit song in the 90s, it came into prominence 15 years later when U2 collabed with Mary J Blige.

U2 were actually experimental going from New Wave (New Year's Day) to Pop Rock (In The Name Of Love) then into Electronic Rock (The Fly) for the majority of the 90s. It's only when they released The Sweetest Thing they reverted and stuck with Pop Rock.

I'm not sure about that theory, Bono's voice is iconic and Edge's riff's are very recognisable. I could see the Average Joe muddling songs up, creating a mental block for themselves because their songs cover the same ground or have similar arrangements. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers have a similar problem.

Dec 18, 2020 2:10:20 GMT Big Pete said:

Dec 17, 2020 21:21:23 GMT Emperor said:

I can name a ton of Rolling Stones/Nirvana/Elvis/Queen songs, and these are bands I don't listen to actively.

I'd only first heard With or Without You when it popped up on the rock ballads tournament a few months back. Just listened to One. Don't recognise it at all. Elevation. Oh yeah, immediately recognise it on the intro. Sweetest Things...nope. I tapped out after that. Unbelievably bland are U2. How'd they get so big?

My theory is that U2 is an invisible band. People may know the tunes without realising it's U2.

That's odd about One, not only was it a hit song in the 90s, it came into prominence 15 years later when U2 collabed with Mary J Blige.

U2 were actually experimental going from New Wave (New Year's Day) to Pop Rock (In The Name Of Love) then into Electronic Rock (The Fly) for the majority of the 90s. It's only when they released The Sweetest Thing they reverted and stuck with Pop Rock.

I'm not sure about that theory, Bono's voice is iconic and Edge's riff's are very recognisable. I could see the Average Joe muddling songs up, creating a mental block for themselves because their songs cover the same ground or have similar arrangements. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers have a similar problem.

Sweetest Thing was actually a reworked B-side off The Joshua Tree album. There was huge hype though for U2 "going back to their roots" for All That You Can't Leave Behind in 2000.

Emperor only behind Queen on that day, U2 made their mark at Live Aid with an incredible performance. They gained a bunch of North American fans after that performance, not bland in the least.

Dec 16, 2020 15:58:50 GMT iron maiden said:

Baby, please Come Home in all it's incarnations is on my Christmas playlist be it Darlene Love, Michael Bublé or U2.

U2's version is an easy top 3 Christmas song for me.