| "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by U2 | ||||
| from the album Achtung Baby | ||||
| B-side | ||||
| Released | 23 November 1992 | |||
| Recorded | 1991 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length |
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| Label | Island | |||
| Composer(s) | U2 | |||
| Lyricist(s) | Bono | |||
| Producer(s) | ||||
| U2 singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" on YouTube | ||||
"Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the fifth track on their 1991 album Achtung Baby , and was released as its fifth and final single in November 1992.
"Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" began as a demo that the band recorded at STS Studios in 1990. [1] The band worked on it during the formal Achtung Baby sessions, including several failed attempts at Hansa Studios in Berlin. [2] This produced several versions of the song and about a dozen mixes. [3] However, the original demo remained their preferred version. [1] Producer Jimmy Iovine, in particular, expressed his preference for the demo version when lead vocalist Bono played it for him. [1] During the group's time recording in Dublin in 1991, producer Steve Lillywhite was brought on to provide a "fresh pair of ears" and mix the song. [3] The album version most closely resembles the original demo.
Lillywhite recalls that, "They hated that song. I spent a month on it and I still don't think it was as realised as it could've been. The Americans had heard it and said, 'That's your radio song there', because they were having trouble with some of the more industrial elements [of the album]. It's almost like a covers band doing a U2 moment. Maybe we tried too hard." [2] Bono said, "It's a song I feel we didn't quite nail on the record because there was another whole set of lyrics that were dumped and I wrote those quickly and off we went." [3] The band later released an alternately arranged "Temple Bar Remix" as the single, the version of the song they most prefer. [3] The band also has claimed they find the song difficult to perform in concert. Bassist Adam Clayton said, "It's a great torch song, with melody and emotion, but I don't think we ever captured it again and we have never really been able to play the song live." [1]
When the covers to "Even Better Than the Real Thing", "The Fly", "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses", and "Mysterious Ways" are arranged, a picture of the band members driving a Trabant is formed. The single includes Bono's solo version of "Can't Help Falling in Love", which was recorded in STS studios in Dublin on 29 June 1992 for the movie Honeymoon in Vegas . [4] The song was released in the United Kingdom on 23 November 1992. [5]
The song was performed in full during the first two legs and the first show of the third leg during the Zoo TV Tour in 1992, often featuring extended bridges or extra solos by The Edge. It made a few appearances during the rest of the tour in a shorter, solo acoustic form. Lines from the song were added at the end of their song "Bad" during the final leg of the Elevation Tour. During the Vertigo Tour, the song has appeared on several occasions, first in an electric version similar to the album version, and later in an acoustic version somewhat reminiscent of the "Temple Bar Remix" used for the single. [6] Thirteen years later, the song became an integral part of the so-called "Zoo Suite" during the Experience + Innocence Tour in 2018. U2 performed "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" during their 2023–2024 U2:UV Achtung Baby residency at the Sphere in the Las Vegas Valley. During the performances, the venue's LED screen displayed flaming embers falling from the ceiling, as closeups of the band members were also shown. [7] [8]
Garbage reworked the song for the 2011 tribute album AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered . "Achtung Baby was a huge influence on the first Garbage album," remarked Butch Vig. "It's groovy and gritty, hi-fi and lo-fi, industrial and orchestral. We picked this song because we love the lyrics. We stripped the verses down and changed the major chord to minor chord, which makes the lyrics more bittersweet. We were in the studio making the new Garbage album at the time; this was a good distraction." [9]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" (Temple Bar edit) | 3:54 |
| 2. | "Paint It Black" | 3:22 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" (Temple Bar edit) | 3:54 |
| 2. | "Paint It Black" | 3:22 |
| 3. | "Fortunate Son" | 2:39 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" (Temple Bar edit) | 3:54 |
| 2. | "Paint It Black" | 3:22 |
| 3. | "Fortunate Son" | 2:39 |
| 4. | "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" (Temple Bar remix) | 4:49 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" (Temple Bar edit) | 3:54 |
| 2. | "Paint It Black" | 3:22 |
| 3. | "Salomé" (Zooromancer remix) | 8:02 |
| 4. | "Can't Help Falling in Love" (Triple Peaks remix) | 4:34 |
Weekly charts
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Achtung Baby is the seventh studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 18 November 1991 on Island Records. After criticism of their 1988 release Rattle and Hum, U2 shifted their direction to incorporate influences from alternative rock, industrial music, and electronic dance music into their sound. Thematically, Achtung Baby is darker, more introspective, and at times more flippant than their previous work. The album and the subsequent multimedia-intensive Zoo TV Tour were central to the group's 1990s reinvention, by which they abandoned their earnest public image for a more lighthearted and self-deprecating one.
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The discography of the Irish rock band U2 consists of 15 studio albums, one live album, three compilation albums, 84 singles, and nine extended plays (EPs). The band formed at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in 1976 as teenagers. In 1979, the group issued their first release, the EP U2-3, which sold well in Ireland. The following year, the group signed to Island Records and released their debut album, Boy. It reached number 52 in the UK and number 63 in the US. They followed it up with the release of October (1981) and War (1983). War was a commercial success, becoming the band's first number-one album in the UK while reaching number 12 in the US. The album yielded the singles "Two Hearts Beat As One", "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day", the latter two have since become among the band's most popular songs. On the subsequent War Tour, the group recorded the live album Under a Blood Red Sky and concert film U2 Live at Red Rocks, both of which sold well and helped establish them globally as a live act.
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