U2 Spotify Playlist: Non-Hit Songs for Non-U2 Fans
I signed up for a Spotify Unlimited account last week, as soon as the service launched here in the US. Didn’t quite warm to it at first and thought I might cancel my paid account, but now that I’ve been playing with it for a few days, I’m probably going to go the other way and upgrade to the highest paid account. (I’ll probably explain why in a different blog post on MattMcGee.com one of these days.)
One of the things you can do with Spotify is create song playlists and share them with friends, with the public, etc. And then those other folks can “subscribe” to your playlist so they can listen to it whenever they want. It turns Spotify into something like a global jukebox.
I’d love your feedback on the first playlist I created, U2 Non-Hits for Non-U2 Fans. You probably won’t be able to see that link unless you have a Spotify account, so here’s a screenshot of the songs in order.
I tried to pull songs from all eras of U2′s career — songs that a non-U2 fan might enjoy. If you get a chance, make that same playlist in your own iTunes or whatever you use, have a listen to it in order, and let me know what you think in the comments below.
Feedback from non-U2 fans has been really good so far, so I hope fans like it, too!
Last 4 posts by m2
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here’s one from each album (no bsides):
shadows & tall trees
october
seconds
indian summer sky
exit
heartland
acrobat
dirty day
plot 180
wake up dead man
stateless
* you already got the good ones
* you already got the good ones
breath
bonus: night & day
I made a similar playlist a few years ago I called “U2 Songs You’ve Never Heard Of” for people who would hear me talk all the time about the band. Mostly I chose my favorite U2 songs that weren’t hits (most of may favorites aren’t) and there are a few similarities to your list (Please, Lemon, Original of the Species, Gone, Kite. Other included The Playboy Mansion (such an underappreciated song!), Hawkmoon 269, and In A Little While (although its borderline, it was never a single but it is a fan favorite). My own U2 favorites playlist plays out much more like this one than a Best Of album anyway.
If it’s an album-only playlist, with no single versions, b-sides, solo projects, remixes, or “duels”, it has to be:
SONG / (PRODUCERS)
Shadows In Tall Trees (Lillywhite)
Stranger In A Strange Land (Lillywhite)
Drowning Man (Lillywhite)
Indian Summer Sky (Eno/Lanois)
Red Hill Mining Town (Lanois/Eno
Hawkmoon 269 (Iovine)
Until The End Of The World (Lanois/Eno)
Stay (Far Away, So Close) (Evans/Eno/Flood)
Please (Howie B)
Your Blue Room (Eno)
Kite (Lanois/Eno)
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Miracle Drug (Lillywhite)
Moment Of Surrender (Eno/Lanois)
Insert one song from a solo project or b-side?
Things To Make And Do
A Celebration
Endless Deep
Love Comes Tumbling
Drift (Edge)
Walk To The Water
A Room At The Heartbreak Hotel
Night And Day
Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses (Temple Bar Remix)
Lemon (Lemonade Mix)
In The Name Of The Father
Hallelujah (Bono)
Beautiful Day (David Holmes Remix)
Mercy (Studio Version)
Winter (Linear Version)
Discuss; disagree.
Good songs above - thx folks. I didn’t want to force myself into any rules like having to use one song from every album or anything like that. The main idea for me was to pick unfamiliar songs that a non-fan might enjoy, and then make them flow together and sound good from one song to the next. That was what I spent the most time on — listening to song outros and the next intro to see what fit together.
I also signed up for Spotify immediately, and I got the Premium ($10/m). My favorite parts so far with Premium is the ability to go mobile. I use my iPhone in the car, so it’s great that all my playlists are synced automatically from my computer to iPhone and vice-versa. I subscribed to this playlist and it’s a good listen…nice flow. I also added you on my people list and look forward to sharing playlists. It’s a bit different mindset with Spotify than with iTunes but I already found lots of new music and I made a playlist folder of a lot of old vinyl and cassettes that I never replaced in my CD or mp3 collection. Lykke Li is one of my favorite new finds.
You definetly need “In Your Blue Room” and “In a Little While”, and maybe get rid of “New York”. Other than that a very very nice list
A really interesting thread. Not sure what counts as a hit but I did this for a friend of mine recently who thinks they know why I like U2 and I wanted to challenge what they thought. Aside from With or Without You and Streets I think you could say these aren’t U2 hits. Stateless is an absolute gem!
Bad/40/Streets live from Boston
An Cat Dubh / Into the Heart from the Paradise Theatre 1981
Gloria Live 1983
Heartland
Love is Blindness
October
Running to Stand still Live version
Soon
Stateless
Stay Live from Toronto
Ultraviolet
With or Without You
Your Blue Room
40
It actually occurred to me that this might be a really interesting idea for the next tour. Smaller venues and a real focus on B sides or hidden gems … Elvis Presley and America being another with just a few big hits placed strategically.