I’m certain you’ll be surprised by my dark horse #1 song but I stand by it.
Here’s the deal—-much has been said about iconic rock band U2. I won’t be able to add anything new, so I’ll keep this brief. I like U2 but I’m no super fan. I own the inevitable Joshua Tree and Atchung Baby and All That You Cant Leave Behind on cd as well as their greatest hits. But Really beyond those three I think I like maybe War and Pop for my Top 5 and that’s about it for full albums. Revardless, U2 knows how to write a good song. So, here’s my Top 20 U2 Songs. Enjoy!
Oh, and here’s a few other similar posts you might also enjoy: Top 20 Songs of 20 Artists: Coldplay, Top 20 Songs of 20 Artists: The Beatles
20. “Gloria” – October (1981)
19. “I Will Follow” – Boy (1980)
18. “Vertigo” – How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004)
17. “Mysterious Ways” – Atchung Baby (1991)
16. “Sweetest Thing” – Single (1987)
15. “No Line on the Horizon” – No Line on the Horizon (2009)
14. “With or Without You” – The Joshua Tree (1987)
13. “Elevation” – All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)
12. “New Years Day” – War (1983)
11. “40” – War (1983)
10. “In A Little While” – All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)
It’s a Catchy little pop ditty and it’s nice to have a less Uber-serious U2 tune from time to time.
9. “All I Want Is You” – Rattle and Hum (1988)
Love the pulsing strings and guitar parts of this one. My favorite band Jars of Clay also does a pretty killer cover too.
8. “Pride (In the Name of Love)” – Unforgettable Fire (1984)
Soaring and inspiring.
7. “Stuck in A Moment You Can’t Get Out of It” – All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)
It’s a prayer. A lament. It moves me.
6. “Sunday Bloody Sunday” – War (1983)
Those drums!!! This song is so punk on so many levels.
5. “Beautiful Day” – All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)
This song hits hard and is fun to rock out to wherever you do your rocking out.
4. “One” – Atchung Baby (1991)
It’s an anthem. Maybe, just maybe it’s also the best song of the 90s. Fight me.
3. “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” – The Joshua Tree (1987)
Yearning. Earnest. True. Universally relatable.
2. “Where The Streets Have No Name” – The Joshua Tree (1987)
I mean, it’s iconic for a reason…up until more recently it would have been my pick for #1 but hey, that’s boring and cliche. It was likely to his song that modern day CCM/worship songs have been copying ever since.
1. “Love is Blindness” – Atchung Baby (1991)
Trust me—I’m as surprised as you that this is my top song. But Like a moth to a flame I keep finding myself drawn back to it. It haunts me in a good way.
How about you? What are your favorite U2 songs?
joshbalogh 
I’m a little late to the party on this one. I won’t throw up a full top 20 but I’d challenge you to consider Magnificent from No Line…In my top 5 U2 songs, maybe top 3. And I’m with Chip, Until the End of the World is my #1 song ever by anyone hands down, especially live.
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Ugh, sorry for the dup comment…
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No worries!
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Joining the party a little late on this one. I won’t throw a whole top 20 up here, but I’d challenge you to consider Magnificent from No Line… Top 5 U2 song on my list, maybe a top 3. I’m with Chip as well, Until the End of the World is my #1 song of all time by anyone hands down.
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Interesting. I do like their song “Magnificent.” I’ll have to revisit it.
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Missed it, but #11 is from The Unforgettable Fire, 1984
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You won’t get any qualms from me about “Love Is Blindness.” Here’s my top 20, which is less hit-laden than yours:
20. “Winter” (original unreleased version) — This very Brian Enoesque song cut during the No Line on the Horizon (2009) sessions takes you on a six-plus minute journey both musically and lyrically, as Bono creates a character who looks back over his life and explains why he became a soldier.
19. “The First Time” (from Zooropa, 1993) — A retelling of the prodigal son story with a Trinitarian structure (first verse, Holy Spirit; second verse, Jesus; third verse, God the Father) that ends on a surprisingly downbeat note — or does it? It’s open to interpretation.
18. “Ultraviolet (Light My Way)” (from Achtung Baby, 1991) — An intense, passionate song of finding hope after despair, and a moving plea to God for future guidance.
17. “Every Breaking Wave” (from Songs of Innocence, 2014) — U2 at their most accessible while firing on all cylinders. While performed live in a stripped-down acoustic version, the studio version is preferable (although both versions are great).
16. “Dirty Day” (from Zooropa, 1993) — This is a serious warning to reconcile with a parent (earthly or heavenly one) before it’s too late. “The days, days, days run away like horses over the hill” indeed.
15. “Breathe” (from No Line on the Horizon, 2009) — It’s hard not to love a song that opens with an allusion to James Joyce’s Ulysses and stylistically pays homage to it throughout. And “I found grace inside a sound/I found grace, it’s all that I found/And now I can breathe/Breathe now” is perhaps the most well-earned, cathartic, and exhilarating ending (lyrically, at least) to any U2 song.
14. “Scarlet” (from October, 1981)– This beautiful meditative piece enduces goosebumps and is as joyful and encouraging as anything U2 have ever done.
13. “New Year’s Day” (from WAR, 1983) — This was an early U2 anthem and originally my favorite U2 song. Don’t miss the eschatalogical imagery.
12. “City of Blinding Lights” (from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, 2004) — This song introduced the main lyrical and concert theme for U2 since 2004: Is it possible to regain lost innocence, and if so, what does that look like? Bono remembers his and Ali’s first visit to New York as young adults and laments his present state in comparison.
11. “The Unforgettable Fire” — Early contemplative and mystical U2, inspired by a Hiroshima exhibit while also including an allusion to Psalm 63 (“Face to face/In a dry and waterless place”). When Bono sings “So sad to besiege your love so head on,” I see the “you” as God (and the besieging as possibly the atomic bomb). The Edge called this the band’s best song to date in 1984.
10. “Your Blue Room” (under the moniker of Passengers, from Original Soundtracks 1, 1995) — This too little-known song is meditative, ethereal, intense, and contains some of Bono’s best poetry. Best lines: “And time is a string of pearls/ . . . /See the future just hanging there/ . . . /A new frame, a new perspective/Looking down on my objectives/Your instructions, whatever the direction.” Yep, it’s a God song that can also apply (but less well) to human relationships.
9. “Heartland” (from Rattle and Hum, 1988) — This is one of U2’s most beautiful tracks, a stunning love poem to America with evocative imagery. Perhaps only Bono, whom I see as akin to a medieval Christian mystic transplanted to modern times, could look at a landscape and see Christ’s crucifixion reflected in it (“Freeway like a river cuts through this land/Into the side of love, like a burning spear”).
8. “One Tree Hill” (from The Joshua Tree, 1987) — An emotional, heartfelt eulogy for a band roadie that finds Bono forcefully calling upon God for both inner and societal transformation. The memorable poetic imagery is apocalyptic at times.
7. “The Fly” (from Achtung Baby, 1991) — This is simply the best, and the only to my knowledge, four-and-a-half minute little rock ditty ever written about the fall of humanity. It’s no secret that this song is profound, looking at both modern sinful human tendencies and reaching back to the original one (“The universe exploding ‘cosa one man’s lie”). U2 warn us that no one is immune from apostasy.
6. “The Wanderer” (from Zooropa, 1993) — Guest vocalist Johnny Cash takes listeners on a search for God in a fictional apocalyptic landscape. This song is arguably the best closer to any U2 album and features some of Bono’s most complicated poetry.
5. “Drowning Man” (from WAR, 1983) — This is the song that first made me a fan. Reportedly written for Adam Clayton, this song of Christ’s everlasting love for humanity in its helplessness is emotionally moving. The Edge called this the band’s best song to date in 1983.
4. “Lemon” — Inspired originally by a home video of Bono’s mother, this song morphed into a more general examination of fallen humanity’s inability to find meaning in a world where work is so much drudgery (“And these are the days when our work has come asunder”) that it’s only after the day is long done that life really seems to begin (“Midnight is where the day begins”). Bono said at the time that the band had moved from the Psalms to Ecclesiastes, and no song on the album better screams “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity,” than this one.
3. “Miss Sarajevo” (under the moniker of Passengers, from Original Soundtracks 1, 1995) — Bono cleverly twists a phrase from Ecclesiastes (changing “There is a time” to “Is there a time”) to compassionately react to the surreal real-life spectacle of a beauty pageant in bombed-out 1990s Sarajevo. This was for years both my best U2 song and my no. 1 example of how good Bono could be as a poet (narrowly edging out “Lemon” in the latter category). Bono and The Edge both sometimes still say this is U2’s best song.
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2. “White as Snow” (from No Line on the Horizon, 2009) — A song inspired by “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” that depicts a fictional soldier’s dying thoughts during the last fourish minutes of his life (the length of the song is supposed to be his last moments). It feels classical and alone among U2 songs features a French horn!
1. “Until the End of the World” (from Achtung Baby, 1991) — “Jesus? This is Judas.” This is the cry with which Bono often opens this song live. Inspired by Brendan Keneally’s novel The Book of Judas, this song examines Judas’s apostasy in his betrayal of Jesus and holds out hope that Judas actually repented. The call and hope for any of us to “[reach] out to the one [we try] to destroy” gives this song the top spot in my list.
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And #4 is from Zooropa, 1993
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Wow! You’re right, some deeper cuts here. I’ll need to dig into a few of these a bit more. Well done.
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Not surprised to see Love is Blindness as your top pick, it’s in my top ten for sure. Hard to pick a favourite, there are so many iconic anthems but I’d go for either All I Want Is You or Where the Streets Have No Name… the dark horses in my top ten would be Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me, which is just the perfect 90s Batman soundtrack, and The Ground Beneath Her Feet. Another one that has really grown on me over the past year or so is Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own.
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