“Yahweh” by U2

"Yahweh" sits eleventh on How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, U2's 2004 album, and it's the sound of a band catching lightning on the first pass. The Edge walked in with the music already mapped out, but Bono improvised his vocal during the very first take, and his melody dragged the song somewhere The Edge hadn't pictured. Chris Thomas was recording, and most of what he caught on that take made the final cut.

Daniel Lanois and Steve Lillywhite, the album's other two producers, each took their own crack at it later, Lanois even adding mandolin to one version, but in the end Thomas's recording went out largely untouched. The words are credited to Bono and The Edge, the music to all of U2. Critics were split, but it held a spot in the Vertigo Tour sets.

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