Customer Reviews
U2 
2008-08-20
I like these songs, doesn't have everything I want, but what collection does? U2's Great success has continued: (Billboard Boxscore, and Ray Waddell of Billboard magazine): The Worldwide "U2 Vertigo Tour" played March 28,2005 to Dec 9, 2006 and earned $389,047,816 from 131 shows - 4,619,021 tickets sold - tour producer Arthur Fogel of Live Nation - $96.92 average North America ticket price (from Poillstar) This type of popularity and earned success doesn't come around everyday: Senator Hillary Clinton has it: In the 2008 Presidential Primary race, Hillary Clinton not only earned more votes than any of her rivals, she earned more votes than any other Presidential Primary candidate in the history of America (and earned 311 electoral votes, to her Party's presumptive nominee who earned 227 - 270 needed to win in November - On August 28,2008, the Party chooses it's nominee for President)
The Best of Does include October. 2008-07-22
Hidden track on a CD? I was listening to this CD in full from one song to another. The whole album flowed all the way to the last track titled "All I Want Is You". Once the song ended and 30 seconds had passed the track kept playing in the car's CD Player. A minute and 12 seconds later there is a surprise. There's a secret track after "All I Want Is You". It's "October", the title track from U2's 1981 album, "October". A great song from their title album.
If you love U2 
2008-07-18
I am late to U2 fandom. And even now I really only like the 1980's U2, but if you like U2 from the 1980's this is the CD for you. All the songs from Rattle & Hum and a few I had never heard before. The best of U2 all on one CD.
U2 sucks 
2008-05-15
Who the hell is the kid on half of their lame album covers. Bono is a retard, U2 sucks, and the songs on this album proves it and shows how "rock" they are.
Excellent Music 2008-04-09
The best music from one of the best bands of the 80's and 90's. If you own all their other albums then there isn't much for you here but if you are new to the band then this is a god place to start appreciating them.
U2 ARE TERRIBLE 2008-03-20
One need hear only the first notes of this collection--the Edge's ringing guitar notes ushering in "Pride (In the Name of Love)"-to be taken back to 1984: Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher rule the Western world, the L.A. Olympics is the top sports story, and Ms. Pac-Man reigns at arcades. In rock & roll, there's U2 growing in stature with each new title. Even doubters of the Irish lads have to concede that together they formed the one '80s band with the skill and sense of scale to take over the airwaves and concert stages in a decade of diminished expectations. This 15-song '80s best-of assortment (stick around for the hidden track) spans the decade, reaching back to 1980's "I Will Follow," when Bono and company were peach-fuzzy and earnest as choirboys, and tracking their path through their most glaring misstep, 1988's overblown
Rattle and Hum.
--Steven Stolder
A basic, bare-bones hit set 2008-03-14
U2's music is legendary. Every single song they do is simply incredible. Every single album they do is simply amazing. They are that good.
This is the first official U2 best-of. Released in 1998 on Island, the set documents the band's early years, spanning (as the title says) the 1980-1990 period.
So how does this collection measure up?
Positives
-MOST OF THE BIG U2 HITS FROM THAT ERA ARE HERE! 'Pride (In The Name Of Love),' 'New Year's Day,' 'Where The Streets Have No Name' and 'With Or Without You' all appear on this set.
-You get underrated gems on here too. 'October (not listed in the track listing, because it is a hidden track),' 'The Unforgettable Fire' and 'Bad' all appear on this set.
-THE SOUND QUALITY IS EXCELLENT!
Negatives
-WHERE IS 'BULLET THE BLUE SKY' AND 'A SORT OF HOMECOMING'? These are great U2 songs that got some radio airplay back in the day, and yet, THEY ARE NOT ON HERE!!!
-And, they could probably fit on here too!
Overall, despite what's here, I can't give this more than four stars. But this is still highly recommended for the casual U2 fan looking for nothing more than the hits.
ENJOY!!!
Touches the hits quite nicely, which is all a compilation is supposed to do in the first place 2008-02-11
Part of me can understand why some people hate U2 as passionately as they do. They were (and, if the success of the recent U23D is any indicator, remain) huge. I'll admit even I got burned out on hearing all of their hits a million times a day. And Bono does come off as a bit pompous (especially on Rattle and Hum, the first true failure of their career), though unlike (for example) Mick Jagger, who bought his seventh or eighth house a couple years ago, he does good stuff with his money. Unlike Mick, he puts it where his mouth is. Wait a sec... Mick does. Okay, this has the potential to come out really, really wrong. Never mind. Forget I said that. Back to square one.
But anyway, despite all that I still think U2 is a great band, even though I don't listen to their studio albums all that often, fantastic as War and The Unforgettable Fire and Boy and the Joshua Tree and All That You Can't Leave Behind are. I mean, if I feel like listening to U2 I can just turn on the radio and I'll hear ten of their songs in an hour. This is probably the U2 album I listen to most, because my cousin (cool guy, by the way) is a pretty big U2 fan, and whenever I see him (which is quite often, considering he now only lives twenty minutes away, as opposed to two hours as he used to, even though he had a sweet house back then), we ALWAYS play this and usually spin War or The Joshua Tree (my two favorites) as well. Good times.
But here's the point: If you just want a place to start your U2 collection, it doesn't really get much better than this. I would've liked "Gloria" (from their second album, October, which is decidedly hit-or-miss), but other than that it's got all their significant hits from the '80s, which were great. Oh yeah, I could complain about how "Anh Cat Dubh", "Shadows and Tall Trees", "I Fall Down", "With a Shout", "Seconds", "Two Hearts Beat as One", "Wire", "A Sort of Homecoming", "Running to Stand Still", "One Tree Hill", "Exit", "Hawkmoon 269" and so forth were left off, and there are too many edits. But it does contain the basics - "Where the Streets Have No Names", "Pride (In the Name of Love)", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Desire", "I Will Follow", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", "Bad" and all the others that have made them one of the most imitated bands in recent history. I think my favorite U2 track, contained here, is "New Year's Day", though I also really like "With or Without You".
U2 were great in the '80s, a time when nobody else really was (except for Prince, R.E.M. and Stevie Ray Vaughan, no other new artists really had much going for them). They've got a distinct sound, a solid rhythm section, and the Edge playing some fine guitar. And Bono. Love him or hate him, you have to admit he's been influential. Good band!
A good, maybe great, but not perfect compilation 2008-01-27
I bought this CD right when it came out, and I was very glad to, as at the time, U2 hadn't released a compilation and I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy four or five albums to get all the songs I liked by them.
First of all, a few provisos: people can argue over whether or not it was a good idea to restrict this compilation to a single decade, particularly when U2 continued to thrive, and possibly even improve, in the time following the period this album represents.
Also, compilations with titles like "The Best of..." are arguably more subjective than ones with titles like "Greatest Hits" or "Singles", as people can quibble about what an artist's best songs are, but there is less disputing whether or not a song was a hit, and even less about whether or not one was a single. Nevertheless, assuming that they meant something like "Hits" or "Singles" instead of "The Best of", this album fits the bill well, but not perfect.
First of all, not every song you might hear on the radio from this era is represented here - some more important than others, but still - "Bullet the Blue Sky", "In God's Country", "Two Hearts Beat As One", "Surrender", "God, Part 2", and several others are missing. At just over an hour, this compilation contains a good amount of music, but 4 or 5 more songs could have been included on a single CD.
Further, not all of them are as you might expect. "Bad", for example, is present in the studio version from The Unforgettable Fire and not the live version from Wide Awake in America that I was accustomed to hearing. Also, "New Year's Day" and "Where the Streets Have No Name" are in edited versions, which may be more familiar to some (again with the radio vs. album versions), but others will miss the full-length versions.
In hindsight, I'm glad I bought this CD - there are a lot of excellent songs on here I don't have elsewhere, like "Pride", "Desire", and "I Will Follow", but I now own The Joshua Tree and War and several of their other albums, though. In summary, I'd say that if you really like what you've heard from U2 thus far, you might consider their individual albums - you won't be disappointed with most of them. That said, this is a good introduction to U2's early work, and I recommend it for casual fans.
I love this CD 2007-12-18
U2 one of the greatest bands ever! I love my CD! it has one of my favorite songs "With or With out you"
