..:: U2 iTunes Complete Box Set Tracklisting (original) (raw)

On November 23, 2004 fans finally got an insight into what was coming from the iTunes store - a "Digital Box Set" of U2 Material some 446 tracks strong, which could be downloaded with a click of a mouse (once you paid for them of course). The songs included stretch U2's entire career from early demo recordings to the newest album, this set does a very good job of showing us pretty much everything U2 has ever done. Also included is a .pdf file which lists the albums and singles throughout U2's career with cover images from the various releases.

The set is called "The Complete U2" and many fans will argue the title is misleading. First several songs are just plain missing from the set, most of these covers of other artists work over the years. But some of these songs are favorites of the fan community, and their abscense has been noted. There is an amusing fan created iMix in the US iTunes store called The inComplete U2 (link requires iTunes) which contains tracks not in the box set which can be bought on iTunes itself.

Another issue is that 48 tracks are just duplicates of what is already available elsewhere in the set, leaving this 446 song set down to only 398 unique songs. What has occurred is in an effort to be complete songs like "Beautiful Day" which never had a separate single mix, are included with both the "All That You Can't Leave Behind" album as well as with the "Beautiful Day" single. It is a little disappointing to realize you just grabbed 50 songs from the interent you didn't have to to get the complete contents. This is probably due to the fact that at this point you cannot tag a single file to count for multiple releases - hence if someone just wanted to listen to the "Beautiful Day" singles they may be dissipointed to have the title track and most the live tracks not represented.

The highlight of the set is the rare material for the U2 fan who has everything else. Unfortunately that is also why this set is being a little controversial - those who have everything have to buy it all a second time to get 10 - 15 new tracks they want because they are not available outside of the set. Adding to the frustration is the limited geography that these sets are available to, as well as frustration when people find they are unable to install the iTunes software to even see the tracklisting because they are on an unsupported operating system (Windows 95, 98 etc.)

Below we present the track listing for the digital box set. The tracks marked "U2 Album Only" which do not have a price will not be made available for download outside of this special U2 Digital Box at this time. Comments on what is missing are based on the By Song section of U2W.

BOY ERA SINGLES AND BEFORE:

BOY ALBUM:

OCTOBER ERA SINGLES:

OCTOBER ALBUM:

WAR SINGLES:

WAR ALBUM:

UNDER A BLOOD RED SKY ALBUM:

THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE SINGLES:

THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE ALBUM:

THE JOSHUA TREE SINGLES:

THE JOSHUA TREE ALBUM:

RATTLE AND HUM SINGLES:

RATTLE AND HUM ALBUM:

ACHTUNG SINGLES TRACKS:

ACHTUNG BABY ALBUM:

ZOOROPA ALBUM:

ZOOROPA SINGLES:

MELON ALBUM:

PASSENGERS ALBUM:

PASSENGERS SINGLES:

POP ERA SINGLES:

POP ALBUM:

BEST OF 1980 - 1990 SINGLES:

BEST OF 1980 - 1990 ALBUM:

ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND SINGLES:

ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND ALBUM:

HASTA LA VISTA BABY ALBUM:

BEST OF 1990 - 2000 SINGLES:

BEST OF 1990 - 2000 ALBUM:

VERTIGO SINGLES:

HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB ALBUM:

RARE TRACKS:

LIVE FROM BOSTON, MARCH 6, 1981

LIVE FROM DUBLIN, DECEMBER 31, 1989

EARLY DEMOS:

Many thanks to those who have helped with this article, including JLK who got us the tracklisting, Brad Hood and Donal Murphy for their insight into some of these tracks and Carl for help all over.