Friday February 4, 2022 “Everlasting Love” U2
This song has been successfully recorded by numerous artists including the original by Robert Knight, then another top ten version by Carl Carlton, then Gloria Estefan, then Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet, then the British group Love Affair and then…well it’s been a really popular song before U2 got to it.
Formed in 1976, U2 had gone through a number of band names before settling on the now iconic U2. They were for brief periods The Hype, Feedback and the Larry Mullen Band, after the drummer who first posted the notice looking for band members to join him. As for the final name choice the inspiration seems to have come from the famous US spy plane the U2…a name which Bono to this date says he does not like.
Mullen, BTW is reported to have a house in Nyack, NY if you wanted to hang out in some of the local spots hoping to catch him.
Although U2 currently plays to huge audiences in sold out stadiums their initial gigs were more modest like most bands starting out, in fact their first performance was for a total of 13, four of whom were the band members themselves.
They have been pretty successful, selling more than 140 million records and winning 22 Grammys, more awards than any other band. And you may think Bono is constantly wearing sunglasses just to be cool, well OK maybe that’s one reason, but apparently he has glaucoma and wears the glasses to protect his already sensitive eyes.
Interesting side piece to note, there is an up and coming band, Inhaler fronted by Elijah Hewson that has a sound similar to U2. Bono is Elijah’s dad.
Stay safe and well…and yeah, the video for today’s song “Everlasting Love”. A mermaid, an elk, Keith Richards, Sam Cooke, airports, Ray Charles, explosions, Keith Moon, Chrissie Hynde, Jimi Hendrix, and then the mermaid again…I clearly have missed the message. Still, it's a really lovely song.