| "Beautiful Day" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byU2 | ||||
| from the albumAll That You Can't Leave Behind | ||||
| B-side |
| |||
| Released | 9 October 2000 (2000-10-09) | |||
| Studio | HQ (Dublin, Ireland) | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 4:06 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Composer | U2 | |||
| Lyricist | Bono | |||
| Producers | ||||
| U2 singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "Beautiful Day" onYouTube | ||||
| Audio sample | ||||
"Beautiful Day" is a song by Irishrock bandU2. It is the first track on their tenth studio album,All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000), and was released as the album'slead single on 9 October 2000. The song was a commercial success, helping launch the album tomulti-platinum status, and is one of U2's biggest hits to date.
Like many tracks fromAll That You Can't Leave Behind, "Beautiful Day" harkens back to the group's past sound. The tone ofthe Edge's guitar was a subject of debate among the band members, as they disagreed on whether he should use a sound similar to that from their early career in the 1980s. The band's lead vocalistBono explained that the upbeat track is about losing everything but still finding joy in what one has.
The song received positive reviews, and it became the band's 14th number-one single on theIrish Singles Chart. Outside Ireland, "Beautiful Day" topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom, and peaked within the top ten of the charts in Austria, Belgium, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland. "Beautiful Day" also peaked at number 21 on theBillboard Hot 100 in the United States, the band's highest position since "Discothèque" in 1997.
In 2001, the song won threeGrammy Awards forSong of the Year,Record of the Year, andBest Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the43rd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony. The group has played "Beautiful Day" at every one of their concerts since the song's live debut on theElevation Tour in 2001.
"Beautiful Day" originated from recording sessions held by U2 in a small room at Hanover Quay Studio inDublin in the winter of 1999.[1][2] In its earliest permutation, "Beautiful Day" was a different song called "Always", which was later released as a B-side.[3] The song's genesis came from a chord sequence that lead vocalistBono composed and that guitaristthe Edge subsequently adapted. The group worked on the song for several days in the studio, but were unable to make much progress with it.[4] The Edge said, "As a straightrock song, it was pretty ho-hum."[1] Co-producerDaniel Lanois said: "the sound of it was a bit stuck in the barroom, and as usual our expectations were high. We wanted to feel the future and not just the past."[4]
Co-producerBrian Eno was frustrated with the lack of progress on the song, and early one morning, he and Lanois arrived in the studio before U2 to prepare some musical ideas. Eno created a rhythm on adrum machine, over which he added a piano part and synthesised strings.[4][1] Lanois played a guitar part on aFender Telecaster that was athird above theroot of the Edge's guitar sequence, providing what he described as a "choral quality, like harmony singing". The producers' ideas proved to be musically inspiring to the band when they arrived and resumed work on the song. Lanois described the Edge's resulting guitar playing as "sounding like shattered, splintered metal coming at you like a meteor storm". Near the end of a 20-minute jam of the song, Bono sang, "It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away".[4] After taking a lunch break, the producers thought that Bono's impromptu vocal from the outro could be made into the song's chorus.[5] They quickly edited the vocal part into earlier sections of the jam, turning it into what would be the chorus of "Beautiful Day".[4]
Before leaving the studio one day, the Edge listened to the chorus vocals, and thinking they sounded bare, he picked up a microphone and improvised a backing vocal,[6] singing a high fifth.[4] At the same time, Lanois harmonised a lowerdoo-wop style vocal that he described as similar to those in "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Their voices were then doubled and processed by Eno.[4] The Edge called the backing vocals a "beautiful counterpoint" to Bono's singing and "the final key element that the song needed".[6]
During the recording process for theAll That You Can't Leave Behind album, the band decided to distance themselves from their 1990s experimentation withelectronic dance music in favour of a "return to the traditional U2 sound". At the same time, the band was looking for a more forward looking sound.[1] This led to debate amongst the band when the Edge was playing the song on hisGibson Explorer guitar with a tone used in much of their early material up to their 1983 albumWar. Bono was particularly resistant to the guitar tone the Edge was playing with, but the Edge ultimately won the disagreement. As he explained, "It was because we were coming up with some innovative music that I felt a license to use some signature guitar sounds."[1]
Themixing process proved difficult, lasting two weeks.[1] Long-time U2 producerSteve Lillywhite was hired to help complete the final mix.[2] Several changes were made during this period; Bono added a guitar part that played the song's chord progression to double the bass, an addition that "solidified everything", according to the Edge. The Edge also changed the bass line in the chorus and converted a keyboard idea of Bono's into a guitar part that added a "sour quality" to balance the track's positivity.[1] Lanois described the completed song as "one of those little gifts where you think, my god, we've got it!"[7]
"Beautiful Day" is played at atempo of 136 beats per minute in a4
4time signature.[8] The song opens with areverberating electric piano playing over a string synthesiser, introducing the chord progression of A–Bm7–D–G–D9–A.[9] This progression continues throughout the verses and chorus, the changes not always one to abar.[9] After the opening line, "The heart is a bloom", the rhythm enters, comprising repeatedeighth notes on bass guitar and adrum machine.[9] In the first verse, Bono's vocals are in the front of themix and their production is dry.[9] At 0:29, a guitararpeggio pattern by the Edge first appears, echoing across channels.[9] The verses are relatively quiet until the chorus, when the Edge begins playing the song's guitar riff andLarry Mullen's drums enter. During the chorus, Bono sings in a restrained manner, contrasting with the Edge's "loud, bellowing" background vocals, asustained cry of "day".[9]
After the second chorus, a bridge section begins at 1:55, playing the chord progressionF♯m–G–D–A, heightening the track's emotion as Bono sings "Touch me / Take me to that other place".[9] The bridge links to themiddle eight with a section in which the Edge repeats a modulated two note phrase on guitar, beginning at 2:08. After seven seconds, the rhythm breaks and the middle eight begins. The chords in this section follow a progression ofEm–D–Em–G–D–Em–G–D–A, implying akey ofD major.[9] The bass plays a G note beneath the Em chord, implying a chord change does not occur.[9] The lyrics for this section are set inspace above Earth and describe the sights that one witnesses, including China, theGrand Canyon, tuna fleets, andBedouin fires.[10] After the third chorus and a return of the bridge section, the song suddenly ends in a "low-key" fashion; most of the instrumentation stops and a regeneration of a guitar signal drifts back and forth between channels before fading out.[9]
According to Bono, "Beautiful Day" is about "a man who has lost everything, but finds joy in what he still has."[11]Blender interpreted the song and the line "it's a beautiful day" as "a vision of abandoning material things and finding grace in the world itself".[7] In his 2001 bookInside Classic Rock Tracks, Rikki Rooksby described the lyrics as having a "fuzzy" quality and covering an "ambiguous subject area between religion and romance". He found "grace and salvation" in the verses' lyrics and believed that despite not explicitly explaining how to emotionally persevere, the song has "so many suggestive images that it's enough".[9]
Simon Reynolds ofUncut characterises the song as "Boy's wide-eyed ardour filtered throughUnforgettable Fire's tingly shimmerscape production", with Edge's echoing "Echoplex chimes", but that despite the deceptively simple composition, "the production teems with subtle flickers,dub-wise backwash whooshes, andvocal harmony embellishments.[12] Tom Ewing ofFreaky Trigger compares the ripple of keyboard in the middle-eight section toWilliam Orbit.[13]
In a 2005 episode of theSundance Channel'sIconoclasts,R.E.M.'s lead singerMichael Stipe said, "I love that song. I wish I'd written it, and they know I wish I'd written it. It makes me dance; it makes me angry that I didn't write it."
In a 2000 interview with the Norwegian newspaperDagbladet, following speculation inQ, the Edge stated that the song was in part unconsciously inspired by the 1985a-ha song "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.".[14]Morten Harket, lead singer of a-ha, said in an interview withNME that the similarity was "fine" and "natural".[15]
"Beautiful Day" was the first single released from the albumAll That You Can't Leave Behind. It was serviced to US rock radio on 19 September 2000 and was issued in the UK on 9 October 2000 as aCD andcassette single.[16][17] The following day, on 10 October, the single was issued in Canada.[18] The song reached number one on the singles charts in Australia, Canada, on theUnited Kingdom Singles Chart and theIrish Singles Chart, and also boosted sales ofAll That You Can't Leave Behind.[citation needed] "Beautiful Day" is included on the compilationsThe Best of 1990–2000 (2002) andU218 Singles (2006) and was reworked and re-recorded forSongs of Surrender (2023).[19] A version of the song known as the Quincy and Sonance Mix appears on U2's 2002 EP7.
The song's video was directed byJonas Åkerlund and filmed in August 2000. It depicts the band walking around in Paris'Charles de Gaulle Airport (where the photographs forAll That You Can't Leave Behind were taken), with scenes of the band playing in a hangar, at the terminal, and on a runway interspliced with large jets taking off and landing overhead.[20]
An alternative video for the song, shot inÈze, France, was featured onU2 Exclusive CD!,[21] the bonus DVD fromThe Best of 1990–2000, and theU218 Videos DVD. A month before the album release, a live version of the song was filmed in Dublin on the rooftop of TheClarence Hotel. It is featured on the extra features of theElevation 2001: Live from Boston DVD (although it is marked on the DVD as "Toronto, Canada").
Ever since its tour debut at the first date of theElevation Tour on 24 March 2001 inMiami, "Beautiful Day" has been played at every single full tour concert as well as a number of promotional appearances and concerts not connected with a tour. On the Elevation Tour, "Beautiful Day" was normally the second song played, though it did open one show, and was played late in the set list at two concerts. During the 2005-2006Vertigo Tour, it appeared in the first half of the main set.
On the 2009-2011U2 360° Tour it typically appeared early in the main set, it also opened some concerts in the early 2011 shows. For the final leg of the tour it was moved back to the midpoint of the show and featured a pre-recorded video of astronautMark Kelly.[22] Kelly had previously chosen the song for a wake up call on the 2011Space Shuttle flightSTS-134.[23] On the 2015Innocence + Experience Tour it either appeared late in the main set or during the encore.
DuringThe Joshua Tree Tour 2017 "Beautiful Day" would often open the encore.[24] Performances on this tour featured an extended introduction leading into the start of the song, and the bridge was extended with synth like voices in the background. Performances on the 2019 leg of the tour were similar. For the 2018Experience + Innocence Tour, the song was moved towards the beginning of the show, initially the same extended introduction was used as on The Joshua Tree Tours 2017 and 2019, however this was dropped after a few shows.[25][26]
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U2 performed "Beautiful Day" as the closing song during their 2023–2024 concert residency,U2:UVAchtung Baby Live, atSphere in theLas Vegas Valley. During performances, the venue's LED screen displayed video artwork byEs Devlin called "Nevada Ark". It is based on her 2022 art installationCome Home Again atTate Modern, for which she drew 243 of London'sendangered species. After seeing the piece, Bono contacted her and asked if she would adapt it for U2's residency in Nevada;[27] the result was a sequence featuring 26 of the state's endangered species.[28] The artwork first displayed on screen in sepia tones during the previous song "With or Without You",[29][30] which Bob Gendron said in theChicago Tribune was "reminiscent of afresco ceiling in an old cathedral". During "Beautiful Day", the images of the animals progressively transitioned into full colour.[31]
It is featured on the live filmsElevation 2001: Live from Boston,U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle, Ireland (2003), andVertigo 2005: Live from Chicago. The song was also performed on stage during U2's set at the 2005Live 8 concert inHyde Park in London, with slightly different lyrics in the bridge that mentioned the different cities where the Live 8 concerts took place.
It was performed live inNew Orleans forSuper Bowl XXXVI in 2002 and for theNew Orleans Saints first game in New Orleans sinceHurricane Katrina. During the band's five-night stand on theLate Show with David Letterman to promote their albumNo Line on the Horizon in March 2009, "Beautiful Day" was the only song not from that album that was played.
"Beautiful Day" received mostly positive reviews from critics.Olaf Tyaransen ofHot Press called the song "surprisingly straightforward but still infectiously catchy",[10] while the magazine's Peter Murphy said the track broke the band's trend of releasing lead singles that broke new sonic ground but were not the best songs from their respective albums. Murphy called the song a "patented U2 cavalry charge fromU2 3 throughThe Joshua Tree toJubilee 2000".[32]The Guardian said the song "strikes an appropriate note of putting the past behind you and getting on with the rest of your life". The review praised the track for its "bustling beat", "contagious chorus and vintage guitar chimes from Edge".[33]Robert Hilburn of theLos Angeles Times called the track proof that the band's music had once again been "graced by the glorious textures of Edge's guitar, and [that] Bono has dropped the masks".[34]Rolling Stone called the song "poised, then pouncing" and said it was one of many from the album that has a "resonance that doesn't fade with repeated listening".[35]The Philadelphia Inquirer was critical of the song, saying it was not "driven by the fire of true believers", but rather by the band's need for a hit, and that it was "a move to solidify a base that may already have slipped away".[36]
David Browne ofEntertainment Weekly was very receptive to "Beautiful Day", noting that the chorus "erupts into a euphoric bellow so uplifting" that it was played during a television broadcast of the2000 Summer Olympics. Browne called the "classic U2 arrangement" of the song "corny", but said, "damn if it isn't effective". He said the song made him reminiscent of the band's glory days in the late 1980s when so much popular music sought to be "sonically and emotionally uplifting".[37]Edna Gundersen ofUSA Today was enthusiastic about the song, calling it "euphoric" and suggesting it was "breathing fresh air into playlists choking on syntheticpop and seethingrap-rock".[38] TheDetroit Free Press was critical of the album for being pedestrian but called "Beautiful Day" one of the album's "flashes of triumph", describing it as "a gloriously busy, layered song that recalls Bono's lyrically astuteAchtung Baby days".[39]NME published a negative review of the song after its single release that suggestedJohn Lennon's assassin,Mark David Chapman, should be released from prison to shoot Bono, a statement thatHot Press called "poisonous" and "tasteless".[10] The publication was more receptive to the song after the release ofAll That You Can't Leave Behind, saying the album "eas[es] in with the heat-hazy optimism" of the track.[40]
"Beautiful Day" finished in fourth place on the "Best Singles" list fromThe Village Voice's 2000Pazz & Jop critics' poll.[41] The song won threeGrammy Awards at the43rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2001—Record of the Year,Song of the Year, andBest Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.[42] In 2003, a special edition issue ofQ, titled "1001 Best Songs Ever", placed "Beautiful Day" at number 747 on its list of the greatest songs.[43] In 2005,Blender ranked the song at number 63 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born".[7] TheLabour Party subsequently made extensive use of the song during its successfulre-election campaign in 2005, though an unresolved dispute with and within the band prevented it being used in party political broadcasts.[44] In 2009, in an end of decade rankings list,Rolling Stone listed "Beautiful Day" as the ninth-best song and readers ranked it as the third-best single for the decade of the 2000s.[45] In 2010,Rolling Stone updated its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and placed "Beautiful Day" at number 345, making it one of eight U2 songs on the list.[46] In 2011,VH1 listed "Beautiful Day" at number 15 on its list ofThe 100 Greatest Songs of '00s.[47]Rolling Stone's 2018 list of the "100 Greatest Songs of the Century – So Far" ranked the song 40th.[48]
A version of the song was used as the theme tune to theITV football highlights television showsThe Premiership broadcast from 2001 to 2004 andThe Championship from 2004 to 2009.[49]Kurt Nilsen, theNorwegian Idol winner sang it during theWorld Idol competition[50] on 25 December 2003 and won the competition with the song. This was the onlyWorld Idol title and was not repeated in consequent years.
In 2004,Sanctus Real recorded a version on the albumIn the Name of Love: Artists United for Africa. In 2007, the German guitaristAxel Rudi Pell recorded his version on his albumDiamonds Unlocked. In 2008, the song was chosen to play over the end titles of the children's filmNim's Island, starringAbigail Breslin,Jodie Foster andGerard Butler. The song was also played afterJohn Kerry gave his acceptance speech at the2004 Democratic National Convention in July 2004.
The song was used byBarack Obama's2008 and2012 presidential campaigns, together with the band's song "City of Blinding Lights". In 2020, Obama listed "Beautiful Day" in a playlist of "memorable songs" from his presidency.[51]
In 2010, a cover of "Beautiful Day" was released byLee DeWyze as his first single following his victory in theninth season ofAmerican Idol. DeWyze commented "I like that song a lot (...) Is it something that is necessarily in my genre? No. There were songs on the table, and I went with the one I thought would represent the moment the best."[52] The cover reached number 24 on the USBillboard Hot 100[53] and number 13 on theCanadian Hot 100. "Beautiful Day" was also covered by 2010X Factor Australiaseason 2 winnerAltiyan Childs for hisself-titled debut album. For the band's 2023 albumSongs of Surrender, U2 re-recorded the song with alternate lyrics during the bridge.
All music is composed by U2.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Beautiful Day" | 4:06 |
| 2. | "Beautiful Day" | 4:06 |
| Total length: | 8:12 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Beautiful Day" | 4:06 |
| 2. | "Discothèque" (Live in Foro Sol,Mexico City,Mexico, 3 December 1997) | 5:10 |
| 3. | "If You Wear That Velvet Dress" (Live inForo Sol, Mexico City, Mexico, 3 December 1997) | 2:43 |
| Total length: | 11:59 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Beautiful Day" | 4:06 |
| 2. | "Summer Rain" | 4:06 |
| 3. | "Always" | 3:46 |
| 4. | "Last Night on Earth" (Live in Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico, 3 December 1997 – video version) | 6:30 |
| Total length: | 18:28 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Beautiful Day" | 4:06 |
| 2. | "Discothèque" (Live in Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico, 3 December 1997) | 5:10 |
| 3. | "If You Wear That Velvet Dress" (Live in Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico, 3 December 1997) | 2:43 |
| 4. | "Last Night on Earth" (Live in Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico, 3 December 1997) | 6:30 |
| Total length: | 18:29 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Beautiful Day" | 4:06 |
| 2. | "Summer Rain" | 4:06 |
| 3. | "Always" | 3:46 |
| 4. | "Discothèque" (Live in Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico, 3 December 1997) | 5:10 |
| 5. | "If You Wear That Velvet Dress" (Live in Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico, 3 December 1997) | 2:43 |
| Total length: | 19:53 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Beautiful Day" | 4:07 |
| 2. | "Summer Rain" | 4:08 |
| 3. | "Always" | 3:47 |
| 4. | "Discothèque" (Live in Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico, 3 December 1997) | 5:09 |
| 5. | "If You Wear That Velvet Dress" (Live in Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico, 3 December 1997) | 2:44 |
| 6. | "Last Night on Earth" (Live in Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico, 3 December 1997) | 6:32 |
| 7. | "Beautiful Day (Quincey & Sonace Mix)" | 7:58 |
| 8. | "Beautiful Day (ThePerfecto Mix)" | 7:50 |
| 9. | "Beautiful Day (David Holmes remix)" | 5:34 |
| Total length: | 47:49 | |
U2
Additional performers
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[123] | Platinum | 70,000^ |
| Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[124] DMS | Platinum | 60,000* |
| Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[124] Digital | Gold | 30,000‡ |
| Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[125] | Gold | 45,000‡ |
| Germany (BVMI)[126] | Gold | 250,000‡ |
| Italy (FIMI)[127] | Platinum | 50,000‡ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[128] | 3× Platinum | 90,000‡ |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE)[129] | Gold | 25,000^ |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE)[130] Sales since 2015 | Platinum | 60,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[131] | 2× Platinum | 1,200,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[132] | Gold | 500,000* |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref(s). |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 19 September 2000 | Interscope | [16] | |
| Australia | 9 October 2000 | CD | Island | [18] |
| Europe | ||||
| United Kingdom |
| [17] | ||
| Canada | 10 October 2000 | CD | [18] | |
| United States | 16 October 2000 | Hot adult contemporary radio | Interscope | [133] |
| Japan | 18 October 2000 | CD | Island | [18][134] |
| United States | 24 October 2000 | 12-inch vinyl | Interscope | [18] |
| 31 October 2000 | Contemporary hit radio | [135] |
Footnotes
Bibliography
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
