"Electrical Storm" - U2

Promotional Release

Track Listing:

Background Information

“Electrical Storm” was the first single issued for promotion of the new compilation album “Best of 1990 – 2000”. The song was newly recorded in 2002 for inclusion on this compilation.

The first, and likely one of the rarest promotional CDs was in the possession of a BBC Radio One DJ by the name of Sarah HB who claimed she had been given a copy of the single by Bono himself for her wedding day. She repeatedly teased the audience for a month prior to actually playing it on August 25, 2002. The version she played was an early demo of the song that differed significantly from the finished versions that started to circulate only days later. Details on this copy that Bono apparantly gave to her are few and far between. The official release date for radio play was August 29, 2002.

After Sarah HB leaked the track, and copies began to appear on various websites, Interscope and Island quickly rushed out promotional CDs at the end of August to radio, containing the actual two mixes of “Electrical Storm” that were to be used on the compilation album. These were followed shortly by actual pressed promotional copies of the CDs that were likely in the works for the song all along. In the USA the 5-inch promotional CDR contained “Electrical Storm” and “Electrical Storm (William Orbit Radio Edit)” and was released in a regular jewel case with no front insert and just a generic black print on white paper back insert. This version of the promo appeared the week of August 29, 2002. The eventual 5-inch CD version would only contain “Electrical Storm (William Orbit Radio Edit)” and would come with full picture inserts on the front and back. This pressed version was released in the second week of October 2002, delayed from original plans, as a CDR had been rushed into production to serve the USA radio market.

In the UK a number of CDR promos were released in plastic envelopes, with just a paper insert inlcuded to detail the contents. One promo dated September 25, 2002, came with “Electrical Storm (William Orbit Radio Edit)”. Another promo dated October 7, 2002, came with “Electrical Storm (Radio Edit)”. And on September 20, 2002 two CDR promos appeared with contents that matched that of the commercially released singles, including live tracks from a concert in 2001 in Boston, and two remixes of “New York”. The actual pressed CD promo, which came with full inserts, contained “Electrical Storm” and “Electrical Storm (William Orbit Radio Edit)”. This pressed version appeared in the first week of September 2002.

A number of other countries also received promotional versions of “Electrical Storm” on CD. In Spain a 5-inch CD was pressed that was circulated in a card sleeve. The disc was pressed by Novodisc in Spain. This Spanish promo featured the same two tracks as the UK promo, “Electrical Storm” and “Electrical Storm (William Orbit Radio Edit)”. In Chile a special promotional version was released, without an image of U2 on the cover, but instead just using the font and lettering of the CD. This version was made by Telefonica, and contained “Electrical Storm” and “Bad / 40 / Where the Streets Have No Name (Live from Boston)”. In Argentina both of the commercial singles were also marked as promotional releases by way of a stamp on the label side of the CD reading “Difusion Prohibida su Venta”, however, unlike most Argentina promotional issues, in both cases the inserts were different, with the grey being a slightly different colour, and the blue not containing any black print. Finally in Japan the commercial CD was used for promotion, and these are marked sample on the disc itself and the UPC area is covered with a promotional sticker.

Liner Notes

From U2 “The Best of 1990-2000” in stores 11/5/02. For Promotional use only. Not for resale.

Electrical Storm (Band Version):
Music by U2. Lyrics by Bono. Produced by William Orbit. Engineered by Carl Glanville. Assisted by Chris Heaney. Additional engineering by Jake Davies and Iain Roberton. Additional keyboards by William Orbit. Protools programming by Ian Roberton and Jake Davies. Mixed by Carl Glanville. Recorded at the HQ, Dublin, The Leonard Hotel, London and Eze, France.

Electrical Storm (William Orbit Mix Radio Edit):
Music by U2. Lyrics by Bono. Produced by William Orbit. Engineered by Carl Glanville. Assisted by Chris Heaney. Additional engineering by Jake Davies and Iain Roberton. Additional keyboards by William Orbit. Protools programming by Ian Roberton and Jake Davies. Mixed by William Orbit. Recorded at the HQ, Dublin, The Leonard Hotel, London and Eze, France.

Artwork

Sleeve designed by Four 5 One Design, Dublin. Photography by Anton Corbijn.

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