Skip to content

Cover of Achtung Baby by U2 — Cover: Achtung Baby

Song · U2

“Until The End of the World” by U2

From the album Achtung Baby (1991)

“Until The End of the World” by U2 appears on 18 radio countdowns from 10 stations between 1992 and 2023. It was first released in 1991 on the album Achtung Baby. Its best result is #11 on the 99.1 PLR U2 20. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #149 alternative song of 1992 and #1,626 alternative song of all time.

18countdowns

10stations

#11best position

0#1 finishes

0top 10 finishes

1992–2023years charted

Watch

Until The End Of The World

Video from YouTube (U2 - Topic). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube

"Until the End of the World" is the fourth track on U2's 1991 album Achtung Baby, and it started as a scrap: a guitar riff Bono had on a demo, which the band pulled back out after talks with Wim Wenders about music for his 1991 film of the same name.

Bono's lyric is bold scripture fiction, an imagined exchange between Jesus and Judas that moves from the Last Supper to the betraying kiss in Gethsemane to Judas' guilt-wracked suicide. The Edge's guitar squalls and churns, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. drive it hard, and Flood mixed it with Daniel Lanois, who co-produced with Brian Eno and added percussion. American rock radio pushed it into the top 5 of the modern rock and album rock charts, even though it was only ever a promotional single there.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

RockLists rankings

Alternative & Modern Rock

Indie & Adult Alternative

#388 of the '90s

All Rock Formats

Year-end countdowns

Year	#	Station	Countdown	of
1992	37	91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana	91X Top 91 Songs of 1992	91

All-time and decade countdowns

Year	#	Station	Countdown	of
1994	491	KROQ	KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1994)	497
1999	847	Q101	Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)	1017
1999	914	107.7 The End	The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)	1077
1999	681	CD101	CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)	2000
2000	681	CD101	CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000)	2001
2001	682	CD101	CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001)	2002
2002	682	CD101	CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002)	2003
2002	1360	Fred (XM 44)	Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002)	2002
2003	682	CD101	CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003)	2004
2003	1043	Fred (XM 44)	Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)	2044
2004	682	CD101	CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004)	2005
2005	682	CD101	CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005)	1994
2005	974	99X	99X Freedom of Choice 1000 (2005)	1000
2007	451	KROQ	KROQ Top 500 Most Requested Songs of the '90s (Labor Day 2007)	500
2015	11	99.1 PLR	99.1 PLR U2 20	20
2021	285	90.9 The Bridge	90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '90s	908
2023	320	The Current	The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s	893

Also listed as: Until the End of the World.

Charting alongside it in 1992

Best songs of 1992 →

Comments

Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about "Until The End of the World" by U2.

No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.