Songoftheday 10/6/20 - Summer stretching on the grass summer dresses pass, in the shade of a willow tree creeps a crawling over me...
"Staring At The Sun" - U2
from the album Pop (1997)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #26 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8
Today's song of the day comes from U2, whose eclectic ninth studio album Pop had spun off a left-field surprise top ten single in the U.S. with "Discotheque" in the beginning of 1997. Their follow-up was "Staring At The Sun", a song more in line with their 90s work. Written by the band's Bono, Larry Mullen, Adam Clayton, and the Edge, and produced by Flood, the track seemed to hop on the Britpop wagon, albeit with a much more serious tone...
"Staring At The Sun" became the second top-40 pop hit from Pop in America in May of 1997. The single did much better on rock radio, topping Billboard magazine's Alternative Rock chart for three weeks, while also taking a week at #2 on their Mainstream Rock list. The track crossed over to the Adult Top-40 format tally as well at #13. Internationally, the single topped the singles chart in Canada for two weeks, as well as going to #1 in Iceland. It also reached the top ten in the UK (#3), Ireland (#4), New Zealand (#4), Finland (#4), Norway (#9), and Italy (#9).
The third release from the record, the synthrock gem "Last Night On Earth", was a decent hit on rock radio, reaching the top 20 on both the Alternative (#11) and Mainstream (#18) rock lists, but stalled down at #57 on the pop Hot 100 in Billboard. It was a top ten success in the UK at #10. That was followed by the dreamy "Please", which got to #31 at Alternative Rock, but just missed the pop chart, "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #103, but also was a top ten hit in Britain (#7), as well as in Spain (#3), Finland (#7), Hungary (#8), the Netherlands and Ireland (both #6). Also from the record, "If God Would Send His Angels", a fan favorite and totally underrated in the States, went top ten in a few European countries and #12 in the UK, as well as the experimental "Mofo", which hit the top-40 in Italy and Australia.
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There were two versions of the music video filmed, here is the other...
Next up, the band on their Popmart tour in Mexico City in 1997...
and from their homeland's Shane Castle in 2001...
Finally, the Edge and Bono with orchestra live in 2018...
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