22/06/2023
A Taste of Modern Music No. 22
Title: Beautiful Day
Artist: U2
Genre: New Wave
Year: 2000
"Beautiful Day" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the first track on their tenth studio album, All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000), and was released as the album's lead single on 9 October 2000. The song was a commercial success, helping launch the album to multi-platinum status, and is one of U2's biggest hits to date.
Like many tracks from All That You Can't Leave Behind, "Beautiful Day" harkens back to the group's past sound. The tone of the Edge's guitar was a subject of debate among the band members, as they disagreed on whether he should use a sound similar to that from their early career in the 1980s. The band's lead vocalist Bono explained that the upbeat track is about losing everything but still finding joy in what one has.
The song received positive reviews, and it became the band's 14th number-one single in their native Ireland, fourth number-one in the United Kingdom, and their first number-one in the Netherlands. It also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Finland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Scotland and Spain and reached the top 10 in Austria, Belgium, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland. The song peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, the band's highest position since "Discothèque" in 1997.
In 2001, the song won three Grammy Awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony. The group has played "Beautiful Day" at every one of their concerts since the song's live debut on the Elevation Tour in 2001.
Writing and recording
"Beautiful Day" originated from recording sessions held by U2 in a small room at Hanover Quay Studio in Dublin in the winter of 1999.[1][2] In its earliest permutation, "Beautiful Day" was a different song called "Always", which was later released as a B-side.[3] The song's genesis came from a chord sequence that lead vocalist Bono composed and that guitarist the Edge subsequently adapted. The group worked on the song for several days in the studio, but were unable to make much progress with it.[4] The Edge said, "As a straight rock song, it was pretty ho-hum."[1] Co-producer Daniel Lanois said: "the sound of it was a bit stuck in the barroom, and as usual our expectations were high. We wanted to feel the future and not just the past."[4]
Co-producer Brian Eno was frustrated with the lack of progress on the song, and early one morning, he and Lanois arrived in the studio before U2 to prepare some musical ideas. Eno created a rhythm on a drum machine, over which he added a piano part and synthesised strings.[4][1] Lanois played a guitar part on a Fender Telecaster that was a third above the root of the Edge's guitar sequence, providing what he described as a "choral quality, like harmony singing". The producers' ideas proved to be musically inspiring to the band when they arrived and resumed work on the song. Lanois described the Edge's resulting guitar playing as "sounding like shattered, splintered metal coming at you like a meteor storm". Near the end of a 20-minute jam of the song, Bono sang, "It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away".[4] After taking a lunch break, the producers thought that Bono's improptu vocal from the outro could be made into the song's chorus.[5] They quickly edited the vocal part into earlier sections of the jam, turning it into what would be the chorus of "Beautiful Day".[4]
Before leaving the studio one day, the Edge listened to the chorus vocals, and thinking they sounded bare, he picked up a microphone and improvised a backing vocal,[6] singing a high fifth.[4] At the same time, Lanois harmonised a lower doo-wop style vocal that he described as similar to those in "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Their voices were then doubled and processed by Eno.[4] The Edge called the backing vocals a "beautiful counterpoint" to Bono's singing and "the final key element that the song needed".[6]
During the recording process for the All That You Can't Leave Behind album, the band decided to distance themselves from their 1990s experimentation with electronic dance music in favour of a "return to the traditional U2 sound". At the same time, the band was looking for a more forward looking sound.[1] This led to debate amongst the band when the Edge was playing the song on his Gibson Explorer guitar with a tone used in much of their early material up to their 1983 album War. Bono was particularly resistant to the guitar tone the Edge was playing with, but the Edge ultimately won the disagreement. As he explained, "It was because we were coming up with some innovative music that I felt a license to use some signature guitar sounds."[1]
The mixing process proved difficult, lasting two weeks.[1] Long-time U2 producer Steve Lillywhite was hired to help complete the final mix.[2] Several changes were made during this period; Bono added a guitar part that played the song's chord progression to double the bass, an addition that "solidified everything", according to the Edge. The Edge also changed the bass line in the chorus and converted a keyboard idea of Bono's into a guitar part that added a "sour quality" to balance the track's positivity.[1] Lanois described the completed song as "one of those little gifts where you think, my god, we've got it!"
Composition
"Beautiful Day" is played at a tempo of 136 beats per minute in a 4
4 time signature.[8] The song opens with a reverberating electric piano playing over a string synthesiser, introducing the chord progression of A–Bm7–D–G–D9–A.[9] This progression continues throughout the verses and chorus, the changes not always one to a bar.[9] After the opening line, "The heart is a bloom", the rhythm enters, comprising repeated eighth notes on bass guitar and a drum machine.[9] In the first verse, Bono's vocals are in the front of the mix and their production is dry.[9] At 0:29, a guitar arpeggio pattern by the Edge first appears, echoing across channels.[9] The verses are relatively quiet until the chorus, when the Edge begins playing the song's guitar riff and Mullen's drums enter. During the chorus, Bono sings in a restrained manner, contrasting with the Edge's "loud, bellowing" background vocals, a sustained cry of "day".[9]
After the second chorus, a bridge section begins at 1:55, playing the chord progression F♯m–G–D–A, heightening the track's emotion as Bono sings "Touch me / Take me to that other place".[9] The bridge links to the middle eight with a section in which the Edge repeats a modulated two note phrase on guitar, beginning at 2:08. After seven seconds, the rhythm breaks and the middle eight begins. The chords in this section follow a progression of Em–D–Em–G–D–Em–G–D–A, implying a key of D major.[9] The bass plays a G note beneath the Em chord, implying a chord change does not occur.[9] The lyrics for this section are set in space above Earth and describe the sights that one witnesses, including China, the Grand Canyon, tuna fleets, and Bedouin fires.[10] After the third chorus and a return of the bridge section, the song suddenly ends in a "low-key" fashion; most of the instrumentation stops and a regeneration of a guitar signal drifts back and forth between channels before fading out.[9]
According to Bono, "Beautiful Day" is about "a man who has lost everything, but finds joy in what he still has."[11] Blender interpreted the song and the line "it's a beautiful day" as "a vision of abandoning material things and finding grace in the world itself".[7] In his 2001 book Inside Classic Rock Tracks, Rikki Rooksby described the lyrics as having a "fuzzy" quality and covering an "ambiguous subject area between religion and romance". He found "grace and salvation" in the verses' lyrics and believed that despite not explicitly explaining how to emotionally persevere, the song has "so many suggestive images that it's enough".[9]
In an episode of the Sundance Channel's Iconoclast, R.E.M.'s lead singer Michael Stipe said, "I love that song. I wish I'd written it, and they know I wish I'd written it. It makes me dance; it makes me angry that I didn't write it."
Release
"Beautiful Day" was the first single released from the album All That You Can't Leave Behind. It was serviced to US rock radio on 19 September 2000 and was issued in the UK on 9 October 2000 as a CD and cassette single.[12][13] The following day, on 10 October, the single was issued in Canada.[14] The song reached number one on the singles charts in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and also boosted sales of All That You Can't Leave Behind.[citation needed] "Beautiful Day" is included on the compilations The Best of 1990-2000 and U218 Singles and was reworked and re-recorded for Songs of Surrender (2023).[15]. A version of the song known as the Quincy and Sonance Mix appears on U2's EP 7.
Critical reception
"Beautiful Day" received mostly positive reviews from critics. Olaf Tyaransen of Hot Press called the song "surprisingly straightforward but still infectiously catchy",[10] while the magazine's Peter Murphy said the track broke the band's trend of releasing lead singles that broke new sonic ground but were not the best songs from their respective albums. Murphy called the song a "patented U2 cavalry charge from U2 3 through The Joshua Tree to Jubilee 2000".[22] The Guardian said the song "strikes an appropriate note of putting the past behind you and getting on with the rest of your life". The review praised the track for its "bustling beat", "contagious chorus and vintage guitar chimes from Edge".[23] Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times called the track proof that the band's music had once again been "graced by the glorious textures of Edge's guitar, and [that] Bono has dropped the masks".[24] Rolling Stone called the song "poised, then pouncing" and said it was one of many from the album that has a "resonance that doesn't fade with repeated listening".[25] The Philadelphia Inquirer was critical of the song, saying it was not "driven by the fire of true believers", but rather by the band's need for a hit, and that it was "a move to solidify a base that may already have slipped away".[26]
David Browne of Entertainment Weekly was very receptive to "Beautiful Day", noting that the chorus "erupts into a euphoric bellow so uplifting" that it was played during a television broadcast of the 2000 Summer Olympics. Browne called the "classic U2 arrangement" of the song "corny", but said, "damn if it isn't effective". He said the song made him reminiscent of the band's glory days in the late 1980s when so much popular music sought to be "sonically and emotionally uplifting".[27] Edna Gundersen of USA Today was enthusiastic about the song, calling it "euphoric" and suggesting it was "breathing fresh air into playlists choking on synthetic pop and seething rap-rock".[28] The Detroit Free Press was critical of the album for being pedestrian but called "Beautiful Day" one of the album's "flashes of triumph", describing it as "a gloriously busy, layered song that recalls Bono's lyrically astute Achtung Baby days".[29] NME published a negative review of the song after its single release that suggested John Lennon's assassin, Mark David Chapman, should be released from prison to shoot Bono, a statement that Hot Press called "poisonous" and "tasteless".[10] The publication was more receptive to the song after the release of All That You Can't Leave Behind, saying the album "eas[es] in with the heat-hazy optimism" of the track.
Accolades and legacy
"Beautiful Day" finished in fourth place on the "Best Singles" list from The Village Voice's 2000 Pazz & Jop critics' poll.[31] The song won three Grammy Awards in 2001—Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.[32] In 2003, a special edition issue of Q, titled "1001 Best Songs Ever", placed "Beautiful Day" at number 747 on its list of the greatest songs.[33] In 2005, Blender ranked the song at number 63 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born".[7] The Labour Party subsequently made extensive use of the song during its successful re election campaign in 2005, though an unresolved dispute with and within the band prevented it being used in party political broadcasts.[34] In 2009, in an end of decade rankings list, Rolling Stone listed "Beautiful Day" as the ninth-best song and readers ranked it as the third-best single for the decade of the 2000s.[35] In 2010, Rolling Stone updated its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and placed "Beautiful Day" at number 345, making it one of eight U2 songs on the list.[36] In 2011, VH1 listed "Beautiful Day" at number 15 on its list of The 100 Greatest Songs of '00s.[37] Rolling Stone's 2018 list of the "100 Greatest Songs of the Century – So Far" ranked the song 40th.[38]
A version of the song was used as the theme tune to the ITV football highlights television shows The Premiership broadcast from 2001 to 2004 and The Championship from 2004 to 2009.[39] Kurt Nilsen, the Norwegian Idol winner sang it during the World Idol competition[40] on 25 December 2003 and won the competition with the song. This was the only World Idol title and was not repeated in consequent years.
In 2004, Sanctus Real recorded a version on the album In the Name of Love: Artists United for Africa. In 2007, the German guitarist Axel Rudi Pell recorded his version on his album Diamonds Unlocked. In 2008, the song was chosen to play over the end titles of the children's film Nim's Island, starring Abigail Breslin, Jodie Foster and Gerard Butler. The song was also played after John Kerry gave his acceptance speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in July 2004.
The song was used by Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, together with the band's song "City of Blinding Lights". In 2020, Obama listed "Beautiful Day" in a playlist of "memorable songs" from his presidency.[41]
In 2010, a cover of "Beautiful Day" was released by Lee DeWyze as his first single following his victory in the ninth season of American Idol. DeWyze commented "I like that song a lot (...) Is it something that is necessarily in my genre? No. There were songs on the table, and I went with the one I thought would represent the moment the best."[42] The cover reached number 24 on the US Billboard Hot 100[43] and number 13 on the Canadian Hot 100. "Beautiful Day" was also covered by 2010 X Factor Australia winner Altiyan Childs for his self-titled debut album. For the band's 2023 album Songs of Surrender, U2 re-recorded the song with alternate lyrics during the bridge.
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