Last week, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” found its way back on to the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time since 1978 when Capitol Records issued a commemorative single that peaked at No. 71 on the chart. Paul McCartney & U2’s recording of Sgt. Pepper from the Live 8 concert in London debuted at No. 48, giving the song its highest-charting position thus far. The Beatles’ “Across the Universe,” which was performed by Bono and a collection of all-star artists during the Grammy telecast this year also had a brief chart run.

2005 is the first year that two songs written by Lennon and McCartney have debuted on the Billboard chart since 1978. It’s also worth noting that Bono, a self confessed Beatles’ fan, contributed to both singles. Finally, the McCartney & U2 recording makes further history by becoming the first Beatles song to chart by an individual Beatle. McCartney has re-recorded Beatles’ songs on his solo albums, but none of those remakes have ever charted on the Billboard Hot 100 until now.

Thanks to “ozone” in the @U2 Forum for this link to a comical Bono - George W. Bush mashup from animator Mark Fiore, who is apparently a big enough U2 fan to mix in some references to old songs that the average viewer won’t know. Good stuff and hopefully funny to you no matter what side of the political aisle you sit on.

See it: Busho Live!

MTV’s website has acknowledged U2’s existence with a video interview with the band here (on the right side of the screen). I would tell you more about this interview, but apparently I need to upgrade my player and I am too lazy to do that.

Elsewhere on that same page you’ll find an article that talks about the ways different bands select their setlists. Of note: several U2-uttered sentences. In the following snippet Bono reveals that for a while there U2 were toying around with the chilling idea of not including Where the Streets Have No Name in the Vertigo tour.

“We were wondering how you could play ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ after the last tour, where we showed the names of those who died in 9-11,” Bono said, giving an example of the amount of thought put behind a single song. “Our show designer said we shouldn’t do ‘Streets.’ And then we started working on this idea of a suite of songs that joined the dots between what was happening in the civil rights movement in the U.S. in the ’60s and ’70s when Martin Luther King was taking to the streets, and what’s happening now in Africa.”

Do you think fans might go ballistic if they left that song out even once?

For those of you heading out to shows that are scheduled to be recorded for future use by U2, you’ll probably see a sign that says that your entrance into the stadium gives U2/Solo Too rights to use your image for their recording purposes. This was a sign that was up in San Diego for opening night, and also in Chicago for the video shoot, as well as in various other cities on the tour.

Others who have been brough up on stage during parts of the taped performances were also asked to sign release statements should they be included in the final video cut.

When it comes to use of other people’s material in live video recordings, U2 have had to edit the material out completely in some cases - such as with “Send in the Clowns” with Live at Red Rocks.

With all of the issues surrounding the Coexist image (as reported on by Kevin Hutchinson), unless the band can come to an agreement with Piotr Mlodozeniec, one of the most dramatic parts of the Vertigo Tour may need to be completely edited out of the finished product. Let’s hope that won’t be the case.

Apple recently announced a new and improved U2 iPod for a lower price: they’ve added a full-color display and dropped the price down from $349 to $329.

Purchase still includes $50 off the digital boxed set, which otherwise goes for $149.99.

http://www.apple.com/ipod/u2/

Also, TEN Technology recently announced their release of a remote control for the U2 iPod:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050627/nym102.html?.v=13

from Guitar World magazine:

U2 guitarist The Edge on a key difference between his band at the time of Live Aid and at the time of Live 8–the hair: “I don’t think I’ll be wearing the mullet again… We can’t take credit for inventing the mullet, but we can certainly lay claim to extending the envelope for what the mullet can mean… Bono committed the more egregious crimes against fashion with his Live Aid hair…our shining moment in mullet lore.”