Song · U2
“Elvis Presley And America” by U2
From the album The Unforgettable Fire (1984)
“Elvis Presley And America” by U2 appears on 7 radio countdowns from 1 station between 1999 and 2005. It was first released in 1984 on the album The Unforgettable Fire. Its best result is #620 on the CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,887 alternative song of all time.
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"Elvis Presley and America" sits ninth on U2's 1984 album The Unforgettable Fire, and it's barely a song at all, more a happy accident Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois had the sense to keep. Lanois, fed up while mixing "A Sort of Homecoming", slowed its backing track from 30 inches per second to 22, and the result became something else entirely: a dragging, underwater haze.
Bono heard it for the first time and sang straight over it, making up the words as he went. He thought of it as a sketch to be finished later, but the producers, and eventually the whole band, felt the take had something they would never catch again. Bono has called it his answer to Albert Goldman's unflattering biography of Elvis, and he would call Goldman out by name in "God Part II" in 1988, that time over a book about John Lennon.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 620 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 2000 |
| 2000 | 620 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) | 2001 |
| 2001 | 620 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 2002 |
| 2002 | 620 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) | 2003 |
| 2003 | 620 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003) | 2004 |
| 2004 | 620 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) | 2005 |
| 2005 | 620 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) | 1994 |
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