Songoftheday 7/3/15 - I have climbed highest mountains, I have run through fields only to be with you....

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - U2
from the album The Joshua Tree (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's SOTD comes from the Irish alternative rock band U2, who went from being critics' darlings to pop superstars in a flash with the release of their Joshua Tree album in 1987. The first single, "With Or Without You", had spend three weeks at #1 in the spring. Their follow-up, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", took them from the personal to the anthemic with a song built around Larry Mullen Jr's drum patterns and Bono's hymn-like lyrics about the thirst for spiritual knowledge. Produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, who also sing backup on the track, the track was the cornerstone of the album. Fitting to the theme of longing in the words, the video was shot in the "old" section of Las Vegas...

U2 — Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For from Adam Fromm on Vimeo.

"I Still Haven't Found..." became U2's second number-one hit on the American pop chart in August of 1987. The single also climbed to #2 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Track and #16 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart. Internationally, the song topped the chart in their native Ireland, went to #6 in the UK, and made the top 10 in Canada, the Netherlands, and New Zealand (in the latter also hitting #2)...

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On their Rattle and Hum documentary, the band traveled to Harlem to sing with a true church choir (this still gives me chills)...

And with the choir during their Joshua Tree tour in 1987...

...and another performance from the tour (without choir) from their Paris show on the tour...

In 1990, the Scottish soul/dance act the Chimes covered the song and reached #6 on the British chart (the same as U2's original), #2 in Norway, and #6 in Ireland and New Zealand...