My 10 Favorite U2 Music Videos

I’ve had a few huge deadlines looming over me lately, so I decided that I wanted to do something fun for myself that hopefully a few other folks out there might appreciate as well. Maybe. We’ll see.

A little backstory: I’ve been obsessed with the music video format for nearly my entire life now, and the band U2 has also been a part of my life for just about as long now, maybe even longer in fact. And since one of my favorite ways to disconnect at night after a long work day is to put on music videos, whether it’s on one of the VEVO channels or just finding a playlist to watch over on YouTube, I thought it might be kind of fun to try and determine which 10 music videos from U2 are my all-time favorites.

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To be honest, it was hard not to just make a list out that was all videos from the Achtung Baby era of U2 and call it a day, because that was really when the band turned a huge corner creatively (I wrote a whole paper on it when I decided to go back for my degree a few years ago) and their videos helped redefine what that medium was all about during the 1990s (that album might have also become my entire personality until Zooropa came out in 1993, too).

But what’s pretty cool is that the more time I’ve spent watching U2’s videos from all the different eras of their career (which is now in its 6th decade —holy crap!), I began to realize that they really have done a lot of cool shit in their videos and always tried to elevate the format while collaborating with a ton of amazing directors over the years to boot. And that’s just rad.

So, here’s a look at my 10 favorite U2 videos in no particular order (there are a few bonus entries at the end because this was really tough for me).

“One” (Mark Pellington Version)

When it comes to “One,” it’s always been hard for me to decide which version I appreciate the most, since all three are really fantastic in their own way. Probably the most recognizable version is Phil Janou’s straightforward video which features Bono singing directly into the camera while drinking and smoking at a bar, and I’ve always appreciated the Anton Corbijn version of the “One” video where the Trabants vehicles are heavily featured, just because of what they represented in terms of the changes that were happening in Germany at the start of the 1990s.

But no matter how much I love those other two videos, it’s Mark Pellington’s “One” video that will always hit me the hardest. I can remember just how wonderfully unusual it felt at the time, where it was mostly just text and images playing over the song, and it felt like I was watching poetry being actualized in front of me. The other thing I genuinely love about this iteration of “One” is that it features David Wojnarowicz's "Falling Buffalo" photograph. It was because of Pellington’s “One” video that I ended up going on a deep dive about this photograph back when you had to go to libraries to look things up, and when I discovered the symbolism behind that image, and how it tied into the work U2 was doing in the early ‘90s to help support AIDS research, all of that just really made a huge impact on me.

Also, because I thought it would be fun, I included the video for “The Story of One” below as well, as it’s a fascinating exploration of how all three music videos came about and the reasons behind them all if you’re into that sort of thing.

“Discotheque”

While so many people were incredibly dismissive of U2’s POP album when it came out in March 1997, I was immediately smitten by it because it felt like this natural progression of the band’s experimentation with electronica that began on Achtung Baby earlier in the decade. I know ‘90s U2 felt like this huge departure from the band so many had known and loved throughout the 1980s, but for me, the more risks U2 were willing to take, the happier I was as a fan.

And that is precisely why I love the video for “Discotheque” so freaking much. One of the biggest reasons why U2 decided to take such a hard left turn as a band at the start of the new decade was because of the shellacking they took with Rattle & Hum (both the album and the movie), as folks just said they took themselves way too seriously. Honestly, they weren’t wrong, and I’m so glad this new iteration of the band emerged because ‘90s U2 will always be my favorite U2.

“Discotheque” is the perfect representation of the band just letting their hair down and going all in on the ridiculousness that is being a figure of popular culture, and I think the visual style on display from director Stéphane Sednaoui is just sublime and works perfectly with the techno-esque beat.

“Song For Someone”

To be totally honest, I haven’t kept up with U2’s music over the last decade with the same intense fervor that I did prior to the 2010s. But it was a few years ago when I came across the video for “Song For Someone,” and I was absolutely riveted. I had heard the song performed at a few of U2’s shows in the last decade, but I think the story that director Vincent Haycock tells here in the video, which features Woody Harrelson and his daughter Zoe, is so moving that it always makes me cry.

Beyond that, there is a minimal use of dialogue in the video (which really does feel like a short film) that allows you to appreciate the beautiful simplicity of the message contained within the lyrics of “Song For Someone” in ways you may not be expecting.

And Woody Harrelson, as usual, is phenomenal here and provides the video with this beautiful beating heart that you can’t help but become engrossed by. There’s no doubt that Haycock created something very special with his “Song For Someone” video.

“Where the Streets Have No Name”

While I would never call the video for “Where the Streets Have No Name” the most artistic video to be released in support of U2’s Joshua Tree album, I think what I love about it the most is just how reckless and “of the moment” it feels. Inspired by The Beatles’ Rooftop Concert back in 1969, U2 decided to take over the rooftop of a liquor store in Downtown Los Angeles one fateful afternoon in March 1987.

The wondrous chaos of the performance is captured by director Meiert Avis (who had previously worked with the band on several other videos including “I Will Follow” and “Gloria”), and thousands showed up that day to just see what all the buzz was about as U2 were preparing to embark on the first leg of their Joshua Tree tour later that week. It was the first “viral” moment for U2 and a great moment that helped launch this phase of their careers.

“Numb”

When it comes to music videos in general, I love it when things get weird, and the video for “Numb” is just so bizarre in all the best ways. Featuring The Edge as he sits front and center while rattling off the understated song’s lyrics, we see a number of people enter the frame throughout his performance just so they can mess with him.

A lot of folks might think I’m totally off my rocker with this pick, but “Numb” was very much a holy shit experience for me the first time I ever saw this video from British director Kevin Godley, and I just thought it was great that The Edge was getting his moment to play front man here (I also think Godley’s “dry humor” approach just fits the song so well, too).

While it might have been a very minimalist music video approach, there’s no denying the fact that the “Numb” video was very influential in both good and bad ways throughout the early ‘90s (although I will be the first to admit that Beavis and Butt-Head’s take down of the video certainly got my panties in a bunch at the time — I’ve since developed a sense of humor). “Numb” may not have been a music video meant for everybody to enjoy, but it certainly feels like it perfectly catered to what I loved about the band during the Zooropa and Zoo TV tour years.

“Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”

As someone who grew up as a Batman enthusiast and a U2 fan, their involvement with the Batman Forever soundtrack was like a match made in geek heaven for me. And once the video for “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” debuted, I was over the moon.

A highly frenetic animated jaunt co-directed by the aforementioned Kevin Godley and Maurice Linnane, “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” features a number of callouts for both U2 die-hards and Batman superfans alike (thankfully, I fell into both camps). What’s also pretty nifty about this video is that it felt like the perfect capper to the Zoo TV phase of U2, as we see both of Bono’s alter egos — The Fly and MacPhisto — battle against each other in Gotham City, the perfect backdrop for the overly dramatic characters.

“Please”

If I had to make a list of my top 5 favorite U2 songs, “Please” would definitely be a part of that list, as it totally floored me the first time I heard it back in 1997, and it still hits hard nearly 30 years later. When it comes to the video, I have a similar response, as it feels like this stark juxtaposition to a number of U2 videos of that POP era that were extremely vibrant and vivid, both in their color palettes and the way they were shot.

I do feel like director Anton Corbijn really tapped into the meaning behind “Please” as it perfectly highlights the ongoing conflict known as “The Troubles” that had gripped Northern Ireland for nearly 40 years (it finally ended in 1998, 7 months after the release of this song).

“Lemon”

Alright, now I’m back on my weird vibes bullshit again because I knew when I decided to create this list, “Lemon” was definitely a top 10 U2 video for me. This was another video that sent me down a rabbit hole once I read in Rolling Stone that director Mark Neale envisioned “Lemon” to be a tribute to the career of pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Essentially, if you remember the lesson that Jordan Peele’s Nope provides us with about the history of the “The Horse in Motion” photography, that was Eadweard Muybridge. And coincidentally enough, he achieved all this with his Zoopraxiscope device, which is pretty darn similar to Zooropa.

Most of “Lemon” features different members of U2 performing a series of tasks with simple accompanying text to go along with each action (“man walking up incline” or “man running”) and feels like the visual embodiment of just how far they were pushing their exploration of society’s obsession with the art of moving images through their songs, their highly popular Zoo TV tour, and through their music videos as well.

“Even Better Than the Real Thing”

Achtung Baby gave us so many incredible music videos, but I think the biggest mind-bender for me was, and always will be, “Even Better Than the Real Thing.” That video feels like a dizzying shot of adrenaline straight to my heart every time I watch it and looking back on it now, “EBTTRT” was the perfect “arrival” video for the band as they were heading into their Zoo TV tour, which not only broke records but also set a new standard for multimedia presentations during live performances.

From the opening sequence of the repeated unfurling hands (those belong to The Edge) to the mindblowing visuals to the usage of cable television from around the world (not to mention footage of wax figures featuring some of the biggest names in rock music), director Kevin Godley (I guess I’m a Godley Girl more often than not) found a way to let fans know through “Even Better Than the Real Thing” that the U2 of yesteryear was gone, and this U2 was here to have some fun all while poking fun at the hypocrisy of the entertainment industry as a whole.

For the video, Godley utilized a unique 360-degree camera rig designed and built by Simon Tayler for the project which allowed for continual rotation around the band. “EBTTRT” also featured footage of a group of U2 impersonators known as The Dopplegangers performing inside a storefront window surrounded by eager onlookers and a hyper-colored orgy type of situation, too, demonstrating that this new era for the band was all about breaking down any expectations the fans might have about them at this point in their careers. “Is it art or is it pornography?” indeed.

“Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” (Single Take)

The single-take version of the “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” music video is a sentimental favorite of mine because it really came through for me when I was going through some tough spots during the late 2000s. There are several different videos for “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own,” but the single-take iteration is the one that has connected with me the most, for a few reasons. First, I’m a sucker for being able to do anything in one-take, and watching Bono effortlessly stroll the streets of Dublin here with a camera guy right in his face is just awesome, but especially from a technical perspective.

But on top of that, what I love the most about this video is that you can hear Bono singing the song live (again, all in one take) over a backing track, making for a very raw listening experience. Considering the song was written for his father before he died, there’s just such pure emotion that comes through Bono’s vocals here that it kind of chokes me up just thinking about it.

Bonus: “Electrical Storm”

As I mentioned before, it was really hard for me to only pick 10 videos, so I’m including a few others that I love for varying reasons. First up is “Electrical Storm,” another masterpiece from Anton Corbijn that features drummer Larry Mullen Jr. in a love affair with a sexy mermaid played by Samantha Morton. The yearning we see between their characters in this video perfectly pairs with the yearning in the song’s lyrics.

Bonus #2: “Red Hill Mining Town”

“Red Hill Mining Town” is another sentimental favorite because my grandfather and several of my uncles were all miners in West Virginia, so the song always felt like a comforting hug whenever I listened to it growing up. The video for “Red Hill Mining Town” didn’t see the light of day until 2007 for some weird reason, so when it finally came out, it immediately brought me back to my childhood and spending summers in West Virginia in a big way. Plus, it was also directed by Neil Jordan, who was just getting his start as a director at the time, so that’s pretty cool that he got to work with one of the biggest bands in the world at the time.

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