Songoftheday 4/19/18 - Is it getting better or do you feel the same? Will it make it easier on you now you got someone to blame?
from the album Achtung Baby (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14
Today's song of the day comes from Irish rockers U2, who had scored a top ten hit in the beginning of 1992 with the second single from their landmark Achtung Baby album, "Mysterious Ways". Their next release would end up not only bringing the band from the brink of dissolution, but is hailed by many as one of the best rock songs of all time. "One", with music written by the band under lyrics by lead singer Bono, was a building, emotional song that talks about healing and coming together despite differences, no doubt inspired by the events in Berlin where they were recording right before the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was released as a charity single to contribute to AIDS foundations to fund research on a cure. The single's fatalistic cover was photographed by gay artist David Wojnarowicz, and three different videos for the song were made, although the one most remembered was filmed by Anton Corbihn, where they were in drag...
"One" followed "Mysterious Ways" into the pop top ten in the U.S. in May of 1992. The song topped both of Billboard's rock radio format charts, for two weeks on the Mainstream list and a week at Modern Rock. It also crossed over to their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening" chart, peaking at #24. Internationally, the record went to #1 in their native Ireland as well as Canada, and reached the top ten in New Zealand (#3), Australia (#4), and the UK (#7). It also went to #12 in the Netherlands, and #13 in France, but surprisingly in the country the song was inspired by, Germany, "One" stalled down at #50.
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The second version of the video had footage of the buffalo from the single cover from Wojnarowicz. Directed by Mark Pellington, it has the animals being directed to jump off a cliff by Native American hunters...
The third and final cut of the video had Bono solo at a table...
Here's U2 live on their ZooTV tour in 1993...
In 1995, British soul singer Mica Paris covered "One", taking it to #29 in the UK...
Now again back to the band on their Popmart show in 1997...
And back in their homeland, playing Shane Castle in 2001...
fast forward to their 2005 Vertigo tour...
A year later, Bono would guest on Mary J. Blige's version of the song, which was a huge international hit, and reached #36 on the Adult Contemporary chart, #37 on the Adult Top-40 list, and #86 on the pop Hot 100 in America. It also topped the singles chart in Austria and Norway, and #2 in the UK and Ireland, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Pop Collaboration, losing to Tony Bennett and Stevie Wonder's "For Once In My Life"...
Finally, Desmond Tutu introduces the song on their 360 show...
Up tomorrow: R&B band takes some lessons.
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