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"If God Will Send His Angels"
Single byU2
from the albumPopandCity of Angels: Music from the Motion Picture
B-side	"Slow Dancing" "Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad"
Released	8 December 1997 (1997-12-08)
Genre	Rock
Length	4:32 (single version) 5:22 (album version)
Label	Island,Warner Bros.
Composer	U2
Lyricists	Bono andThe Edge
Producers	Flood Howie B Steve Osborne (single version only)
U2 singles chronology
"Please" (1997) "If God Will Send His Angels" (1997) "Mofo" (1997)
Music video
"If God Will Send His Angels" onYouTube

"If God Will Send His Angels" is a song by Irishrock bandU2. It is the fourth track on their 1997 albumPop and was released as its fifth single on 8 December 1997. It was also featured on theCity of Angels soundtrack.

The "If God Will Send His Angels" singles were backed with the followingB-sides:

"Slow Dancing" is acountry song written byBono forWillie Nelson in 1989. Its first release was on a 1993 single, "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)", and performed solely by Bono andthe Edge. In 1997, U2 had the opportunity to record it with Nelson. This version features the entire band, in addition to vocals by Nelson andharmonica byMickey Raphael. Bono andBrian Eno provide backing vocals.

This song was written byBono andthe Edge forFrank Sinatra in 1992. It is a jazzylounge song written in the style of Sinatra's music. This performance was recorded live by Bono and the Edge in aLondon studio for Sinatra's 80th birthday. It was played for Sinatra in the United States at a televised birthday tribute on 19 November 1995 and was likely recorded a few days earlier. It has a string arrangement byCraig Armstrong.

Although Frank Sinatra never got a chance to record it himself, his daughterNancy Sinatra cut a version for her 2004 albumNancy Sinatra. U2'sAdam Clayton andLarry Mullen Jr. play bass and drums respectively for the track (they did not appear on the original recording). Sinatra changes thepronouns in the lyrics from a first-person perspective to a third-person, presumably to refer to her father.

Canadian singerMatt Dusk recorded the song for his albumTwo Shots.

The performance of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was recorded live at the band'sPopMart show atSarajevo,Bosnia-Herzegovina on 23 September 1997. Because Bono lost his voice early in the show, guitarist the Edge sang the song, accompanied only by his guitar. It is a quiet, pensive performance of the song, a stark contrast from the fiery original onWar.

This was the first time the song was performed this way, replacing Edge's nightlykaraoke song in the set (with the exception of the immediately subsequent shows inThessaloniki,Greece andTel Aviv,Israel, this set list change would continue until the end of the PopMart tour).

This version of the song wasremixed by Johnny Moy.

There are four versions of this song:

• The album version, which appears onPop. This is the original and the longest version of the song.
• The single version, which appears on the single, theCity of Angels soundtrack, and the music video. Itschoruses are arranged in the opposite order (moving the climax nearer to the end of the song), and it has a different ending (with actual lyrics replacing thescat singing of the original), shortening the track by 50 seconds.
• The "Big Yam Mix" (also known as the "Grand Jury Mix"), a remix of the song that appears on the "Mofo"single as well as the B-sides disc ofThe Best of 1990–2000.
• A re-recorded, stripped-down and acoustic version of the song that appears onSongs of Surrender.

The song was promoted with amusic video directed byPhil Joanou. The video takes place in a restaurant inDetroit.^[1] The screen is split horizontally, showing Bono in the top half and the person sitting across from him in the bottom half. The lighting brightly lights up each person's face (in contrast to the dim backgrounds). As Bono sings the song, numerous different people sit down at his table, talk for a while, and leave (including the three other members of the band at one point).

The video was filmed at a slower speed and sped up; thus, Bono had to learn how to sing the song slowly in order to properly synchronize with the song. The other people in the video spoke and moved at regular speed, so they appear sped up in the video.

The video appears on theDVD forThe Best of 1990–2000, along with director's commentary.

An alternate cut of the video, in which scenes from the movieCity of Angels are interspliced, was also released.

"If God Will Send His Angels" was performed solely on thePopMart Tour at 23 of the 35 shows on the tour's first leg.^[2] It debuted at the tour's first show, on 25 April 1997 inLas Vegas, and segued out of "Until the End of the World". This was the only time the full band played the song.^[3] All 22 subsequent performances were played just by Bono and the Edge, though the segue out of "Until the End of the World" was retained. Its last performance was on 27 June 1997 inChicago^[4] and it was replaced by "New Year's Day" the next night.^[5]

A chocolateadvent calendar was distributed to promote the single.^[6]

All tracks performed by U2, except "Slow Dancing" by U2 featuringWillie Nelson, and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" bythe Edge.

• List of covers of U2 songs - If God Will Send His Angels

• 1997 singles
• U2 songs
• Island Records singles
• Songs written by Bono
• Songs written by the Edge
• Songs written by Adam Clayton
• Songs written by Larry Mullen Jr.
• Song recordings produced by Flood (producer)
• Music videos directed by Phil Joanou

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