Legend Credentials:

U2 have been the biggest music act in the world since the late 1980s.

It’s a position that iconic lead singer Bono insists the band have to prove their credentials for with each new album and tour (as he said in 2000 “we are reapplying for the position of ‘best band in the world’.”). Such has been U2’s insistence on pushing themselves that they have had creative and commercial successes beyond any other.

Some facts:

U2 have won more Grammy Awards than any other band (22); they were only the fourth band to appear on the cover of "Time" magazine (after The Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Who); their 2005 Vertigo tour was the biggest grossing ever ($389m) being seen by over 4.6 million people; U2 have sold over 140m albums; their most recent album 2004’s "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" debuted at number 1 in 32 countries, smashing their previous US record sales in the process.

Remarkably for a band with such longevity and profile, they have never changed line-up (Bono, lead singer and songwriter; The Edge, lead guitar, keyboards, vocals; Adam Clayton, bass guitar; Larry Mullen Jr., drums joined together at their Dublin school in 1976) or manager, they have worked with Paul McGuinness since 1978.

Equally remarkably, the band began with high ideals and firm principles. They decided to use the band's career to promote their belief in social justice from the very start – and they have stuck by it to amazing effect.

Their popular early song "Sunday Bloody Sunday", from 1983, commemorated the slaughter of innocent civilians during the Irish troubles and called for a renunciation of violence. Throughout the 1980s the band used this song to campaign against the IRA. This led to threats that if they continued they would be kidnapped. The band continued anyway.

U2 were major participants in the historic and seminal "Live Aid" concert of 1985, and Bono has become prominent in efforts to end poverty and seek relief from AIDS and promote trade for Africa, using his profile to meet personally with world leaders and business chiefs.

U2’s new audition for the biggest band in the world begins again with their first album in five years, No Line on the Horizon, due in March.

The Original Track:

This beautiful, soft, piano-based song is the fifth track from “The Joshua Tree”, U2’s landmark 1987 album. According to Bono in a BBC TV documentary, the track order for the album was devised by singer Kirsty MacColl. She put her favorite song first, then her second favorite, and so on… Bono has since rated the track much higher, naming it in interviews as among his favourite five all-time U2 tracks.

Classic Clip:

Bono, The Edge and producer Daniel Lanois talk through the story behind the making of the original track, and making “music that takes you to a physical as well as an emotional place”.