"I Will Follow" - U2

Promotional Release

Track Listing:

Background Information

“I Will Follow” was the first single that Island Records made available in North America. The single was released in the UK and throughout Europe in October 1980, and was released in the United States and Canada in March of 1981. The release of promotional singles also were staggered, with the promotional singles reaching North America in March 1981 instead of earlier as the UK singles had.

In the UK the promotional single was a special one sided black vinyl single which contained an edit of “I Will Follow” shaving just five seconds off the total time for the track. The single was released with the generic Island tree and sunburst label, and is marked as “Special Edited DJ Version” on the top of the label. A “DJ” is added after the commercial catalog number on this release.

In the US, the promotional single was issued with the generic tree label and one side had the album version of the song and the other version claimed to have a mono version of the song. The “Mono” version appears to be a labelling error on the disc. Those with copies of the single have looked at the actual sound output of the track and have reported that this is indeed the same track on both sides of the promotional single. The single was released in a generic sleeve. In Canada, the promotional single was pressed with a white label and a different catalog number from the commercial release. The catalog number on the promotional single was “YOU 2”. Like the American version of the promotional single one side is the album version of “I Will Follow” while the other is labelled as a “Mono Version” of “I Will Follow”. The Canadian version was issued in a generic WEA company sleeve.

A 12” promotional item was also issued in North America, which features “I Will Follow” on one side, while another Island artist, Steve Winwood, is featured performing “Night Train” on the b-side of the vinyl. This promotional label has a blue Island label on the vinyl, and was released in a blue Island generic sleeve.

Liner Notes

I Will Follow: Produced by Steve Lillywhite.

Although not originally credited, the remastered release of the album Boy also listed Paul Thomas as engineer, and Kevin Moloney as assistant on the recording of “I Will Follow”.

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