"Best of Friends" - Holland, Jools
Album
U2 Related Content:
- "If You Wear that Velvet Dress" (Studio Version II - Edit) - Bono, Jools Holland and His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra (06:15)
Full Track Listing:
Disc One: CD:
- Tuxedo Junction – Jools Holland and His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra
- Where Have All the Good Guys Gone (With Lulu)
- Out of This World – (With Chrissie Hynde)
- Snowflake Boogie (With Edwin Starr)
- In the Dark (With Norah Jones)
- Horse to the Water (With George Harrison)
- To Love a Child (With Ruby Turner) (Previously Unreleased)
- Enjoy Yourself (With Prince Buster)
- First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (With Stereophonics)
- Seventh Son (With Sting)
- Just to Be Home with You (With Shane McGowan)
- Darkness on the Face of the Earth (With KT Tunstall)
- Return of the Blues Cowboy (With Joe Strummer)
- I Put a Spell on You (With Mica Paris / David Gilmour)
- Rock Me (With Blind Boys of Alabama)
- Georgia on My Mind (With India Arie)
- Think (With Tom Jones)
- Valentine Moon (With Sam Brown)
- Oranges and Lemons Again (With Suggs)
- Mabel (With Solomon Burke / Eric Clapton)
- If You Wear That Velvet Dress (With Bono)
Disc Two: DVD:
- Best of Friends – the Story (Documentary)
- Gilson Lavis (Jools’ Drummer) Interview
- I’m in the Mood for Love (With Jamiroquai)(Video)
- Oranges and Lemons Again (With Suggs) (Video)
- It’ll Be Me (With Tom Jones) (Video)
Background Information
After a couple of very successful compilations of Jools Holland playing with his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra and various guests, the record label released this compilation featuring tracks from across the releases. It included a couple of new remixes of the original tracks, and came as a two disc set, featuring audio tracks on one disc, and video content on the other.
The song Bono participates on here is U2’s “If You Wear That Velvet Dress”, recorded on September 22, 2002. Bono recorded with Jools Holland and his orchestra, for the second album of “Friends“, released in November 2002 in the UK, and the following Spring in North America. In all three versions of “Friends” were recorded, and this compilations features tracks from all three.
The version initially released in 2002 was a longer version of the song. The original came in at 6:22 in length, and this new version is seven seconds shorter. It is not just a case of the ending fading out faster, there’s been material removed from the final minutes of the song, and the ending remains the same as the earlier version.
U2 would play with Holland’s band Squeeze a number of times over the years. This included shows in November 1979 where U2 opened for Squeeze in Northern Ireland, and the 1985 Croke Park show where Squeeze opened. In December 2004 Bono made an appearance at the Groucho Club in London with Tom Jones and Jools Holland singing a few songs. Holland is well known for his show Later with…Jools Holland, and U2 would make their first appearance on that show in October 2014, long after this song with Bono was recorded.
Liner Notes
If You Wear that Velvet Dress:
Hewson / Evans / Clayton / Mullen. Recorded 22.09.02. Produced, engineered and mixed by Laurie Latham. Additional engineering by Ron Burrow, Jay Newland, Michael C. McCoy, Damon Eliot, Andy Wright, John Roper. Gilson Lavis: Drums. Mark Flanagan: Guitar. Dave Swift: Bass. Christopher Holland – Organ. Jason McDermid: Trumpet. Chris Storr: Trumpet. Phil Veacock: Saxophone. Michael Rose: Saxophone, Flute. Lisa Grahame: Saxophone. Peter Long: Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Clarinet, Piccolo. Nick Lunt: Baritone Saxophone. Sam Brown: Vocals. Dinah Beamish: Cello. Emily Burridge: Cello. Frank Shaffer: Cello. Abigail Trundle: Cello. Tim Wilford: Violin. Anna Herney: Violin. Emil Chitakov: Violin. Marina Solarek: Violin. Sonya Fairburn: Violin. Iain McLeod: Violin. Brian Wright: Violin. Giles Broadbent: Violin. Jeff Moore: Violin. Anne Stephenson: Violin. Gina Bell: Violin. Julia Singleton: Violin. Nick Cooper: Cello. Richard Ward Roden: Cello. Guy Barker: Trumpet. Fayaz Virgi: Trombone. Pat Hartley: Trombone. Claudia Fontaine: Backing Vox. Laurie Latham: Percussion, Clavinova Choir.