The band continued to tinker with “Always” until one day, while jamming in the studio, Bono spontaneously sang “It’s a beautiful day” – and just like that, they not only had a new approach to an old song, but the genesis of an entirely new one.īono wrote an entirely new set of lyrics that suggested loss but also optimism.

Listen to “Always” and you’ll see how closely its chorus resembles that of the later hit. “Beautiful Day” grew out of “Always,” a song that U2 wrote in the earliest recording sessions for All That You Can’t Leave Behind but weren’t entirely satisfied with. But after Pop’s underwhelming critical and commercial performance, the band realized that they had, in the words of guitarist the Edge, “taken the deconstruction of the rock’n’roll band format” as far as they could. U2 continued this artistic trajectory through their next two albums, 1993’s Zooropa and 1997’s Pop, experimenting with electronic music and writing more disillusioned lyrics. For their 1991 masterpiece, Achtung Baby, the band jettisoned their well-worn sincerity and fascination with American roots music in favor of recording something darker and more abrasive. Like Nirvana, who was also a contender for the “best band in the world” title in the 90s, U2 spent much of the decade deliberately picking their fame apart.

When “Beautiful Day,” the lead single from the band’s tenth album, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, won three Grammy Awards just two weeks later, it must have felt like confirmation that they got their old job back. “We’re back, re-applying for the job of best band in the world,” U2frontman Bono announced onstage at London’s Astoria Theatre on the night of February 7, 2001.

Beautiful day u2