"Blue" - Zucchero
Single
U2 Related Content:
- "Blue" (English Version Edit I) - Zucchero (04:33)
- "Blue" (English Version Edit) - Zucchero (04:08)
- "Blue" (Instrumental) - Zucchero (04:32)
Full Track Listing:
Italian Single: (567 841-2)
- Blue (English Edit) (4:04)
- Nothing to Lose
- Eppure Non T’Amo
- Blu (Italian Edit) (4:04)
German Single: (561 193-2)
- Blue (English Version Edit I) (4:33)
- Blue (Instrumental) (4:32)
- Blue (English Version Edit II) (4:04)
Background Information
Zucchero is an Italian musician, well known in his own country and throughout Europe, but lesser known in North America. The single “Blue” was first released in Italy in October 1998, in advance of his album. The single was released throughout Europe in different formats. Only singles containing the English language song titled “Blue” contain the song that Bono crafted the lyrics for. The Italian lyrics titled “Blu” were written by Zucchero himself. The song is taken from the album “Blue Sugar” which contains a song called “Blu”, written by Zucchero and sung in his native Italian. For the international version of the album, Zucchero approached Bono to write English language lyrics for the song “Blu”. The song was released on international versions of the album under the title “Blue”.
This isn’t the first song that Bono worked with Zucchero on. In 1992, Bono wrote the english lyrics for the song “Miserere”, sung by Zucchero and Pavarotti, which appeared on Zucchero’s 1992 album “Miserere”. Bono would also work with Zucchero to write the English lyrics for “Someone Else’s Tears” on his 2010 album “Chocabeck.” Zucchero has appeared in concert with Bono, performing beside him at the Net Aid concert in 1999, and at one of the Pavarotti and friends concerts.
Many of the singles released were released with “Blu” or an edit of the song “Blu”. A smaller number of singles contain the english track, “Blue” on which Bono wrote lyrics. A German commercial single entitled “Blue Remixes” was released with two edits of the English track, as well as an instrumental version of the song which does contain a small amount of English lyrics as well. An Italian single was released which contain both an English Edit and an Italian Edit of the song.
The cover of “Blue” was photographed by Anton Corbijn, a long time associate of U2.
Liner Notes
Blue:
Music: Zucchero. Lyrics: Bono. Produced by Corrado Rustici. Arranged by Zucchero and Corrado Rustici. Zucchero: Vocals, Fuzz synth, electric piano. Corrado Rustici: Electric guitars, keyboards, programming, Pro Tools / 24. Michael Urbano: Drums, percussions. Benny Rietveld: Bass. Mark Feltham: Harmonica. Massimo Marcolini: Dobro. Strings arranged and conducted by Will Malone. Pre-production and additional arrangements: Zucchero, Leonardo Rosi, Massimo Marcolini. Remixes by Julien Mendelsohn.