1987Released
3:04

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Sweetest Thing. By Songfacts®.

Bono wrote "Sweetest Thing" as a belated birthday present to his wife, Ali, after she turned 25. On her birthday (March 23) in 1986, he was working on recording The Joshua Tree album and noticed she wasn't speaking to him. He later realized why: he forgot her birthday. To make up for it, he wrote her this song, which isn't all lovey dovey but paints a realistic portrait of their love, which can be stormy at times but is ultimately the sweetest thing. Bono takes the blame for any disruption: he's the rain cloud in this storm.

U2 recorded "Sweetest Thing" for The Joshua Tree but left it off because they felt it didn't fit in on the album. It was originally released as the B-side to a 7" single that also included "Where The Streets Have No Name" and "Silver And Gold." Despite being banished to B-side, the song found a following and became a favorite of the U2 faithful. It was finally released as an A-side single in 1998 when it was re-recorded and included on the compilation U2 The Best Of 1980-1990. It charted in America at #63 and in the UK at #3.

The grand gesture of writing this song for his wife Ali certainly earned him some points, but Bono continued to struggle with work-life balance. He was just 22 when they got married, and not yet a global superstar. "Ali would have been happier with a life that was simpler than the one we've ended up with, and it wasn't long into our marriage that I began to sense she was becoming distant from the life we were living," Bono wrote in his 2022 memoir Surrender. Bono's stardom was a strain, but he and Ali committed to each other and raised three kids (the first born in 1989) even as U2 ascended to become one of the most famous bands in the world. Somehow, Bono survived as both a rock star and a family man, and his wife, whom he described as "an extremely private" person, stood by him.

Top Listeners

Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Sweetest Thing.
CKey
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
142BPM

Album

The album Sweetest Thing is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Sweetest Thing.
UMC (Universal Music Catalogue)
© 2017 Island Records, a division of Universal Music Operations Limited
This Compilation ℗ 2017 Island Records, a division of Universal Music Operations Limited

See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.

Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.

5.8MArtists
73.6MSongs
12.3MAlbums
6.3KGenres
2.5MLabels
493KPlaylists