"Blue Sugar" - Zucchero
Album
U2 Related Content:
- "Blue" (English Version) - Zucchero (05:48)
Full Track Listing
International Track Listing:
- U Make Me Feel Loved (3:59)
- Blue (5:48)
- Thin Air (5:44)
- If Not Tonight (3:32)
- Back 2 U (4:33)
- Donkey Tonkey (4:55)
- (Temporaneamente) X Sempre Tuo (4:09)
- More Than This (4:42)
- Karma, Stai Kalma (4:44)
- I Wish You Love (4:34)
- I Tempi Cambieranno (4:41)
Background Information
Zucchero is an Italian musician, well known in his own country and throughout Europe, but lesser known in North America. He had released many albums previous to “Blue Sugar” was released in 1998. The album was released first in his native Italy on November 5, 1998, and was released later in the month in the UK and North America. The album “Blue Sugar” 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”. If looking for the song that Bono wrote lyrics for you will want to ensure you find a copy with the song “Blue” and not just “Blu”.
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.
Italian copies of “Blue Sugar” featured only “Blu” and had no content from Bono. Versions released throughout Europe, including the UK, Germany and Switzerland all featured the English version of the song, “Blue”. Copies released in North America all featured “Blue”. “Blue” was issued as a single in Europe, both in Italian and English. Commercial copies of the single were released, as well as promotional versions, some with different edits of the track.
The cover of “Blue Sugar” 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.