Album · U2
October by U2
October is an album by U2, released in 1981. 5 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 68 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Gloria”, on 48 lists with a best position of #51.
October, U2's second album, came out on Island on 12 October 1981, with Steve Lillywhite producing once more at Windmill Lane Studios, just as he had on their 1980 debut, Boy. It's a record wrestling with its own soul. Bono, the Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. had joined a Christian group called the Shalom Fellowship, so the songs are shot through with faith and spiritual searching, while the band argued over whether belief and the rock and roll life could share a stage. That question very nearly split them up.
They started writing after the third leg of the Boy Tour wrapped in February 1981 and went into the studio in July. Then Bono lost a briefcase holding his half-finished lyrics, and much of the record got finished on the fly, improvised against the clock. You can hear the urgency in it: guitars that chime and churn, drums that march, and "Gloria" bursting out like a full-throated hymn. The title track, "Rejoice", "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "I Threw a Brick Through a Window" fill out a record of restless, searching moods.
"Fire" came out first, as the lead single in July 1981, and "Gloria" arrived alongside the album. Reviews were mixed and radio mostly looked the other way, and a remastered edition followed in 2008.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from October on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gloria | 48 | #51 | – | 1988–2026 | |
| 2 | October | 10 | #685 | – | 1999–2022 | |
| 3 | Stranger In A Strange Land | 7 | #1299 | – | 1999–2005 | |
| 4 | Rejoice | 2 | #623 | – | 2002–2003 | |
| 5 | I Threw a Brick Through a Window | 1 | #1389 | – | 2003 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.