The Saints and Green Day

[roy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X6AM7yTs4E

LOL.

 

[BVS]

Dude, it's a fucking charity single. Half the video is showing what the charity is for. What did you want for the other half? Some mind-blowing animation or dramatic storytelling? It's a charity single. This is what charity single videos look like.

What does he want? To bitch, that's pretty obvious.

 

[SpaceOddity]

Dude, it's a fucking charity single. Half the video is showing what the charity is for. What did you want for the other half? Some mind-blowing animation or dramatic storytelling? It's a charity single. This is what charity single videos look like.

He's actually been asked this a few times already, and so far, no answer. LOL.

 

[Catman]

One other thing against THTBA is that it was never a greatest hit...but made it on the Best Of album.


And it sucks. At least Electrical Storm was good.

I think that even the precedent of having a U2-written song designed to advertise for a crappy movie on a best of album allows for a U2 performance with better intentions to be allowed, whether it's their original song or not.

Looking back at other artists, we'll see that this is indeed something that has happened before---covers are not infrequently included on Greatest Hits albums. You may question the merit of some of these artists (I'm throwing Grand Funk in there again ), but here's a short list of artists who've tacked covers onto their Best Of albums:

1. Johnny Cash - "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails
2. Grand Funk Railroad - "Gimme Shelter" by Rolling Stones
3. Aerosmith - "Come Together" by the Beatles
4. Rolling Stones - "Not Fade Away," a Buddy Holly song first recorded by Holly & on several Rolling Stones Best Of compilations
5. Beatles - "Baby It's You," a Burt Bacharach song originally recorded by The Shirelles....used on the Beatles album Please Please Me & on at least one Beatles Compilation album (The Early Beatles).

So, the fact that Saints is a cover doesn't bother me much. True, it's not just U2--it's also Green Day performing--but I bet if we dug enough we could find some similar instances of collaborations that made it to Greatest Hits albums. Quick list off the top of my head:

1. Johnny Cash - "The Wanderer," with U2
2. The Pretenders - "I Got You Babe," with UB40---both a cover and a collaboration, on a GH album

So..I don't think it's thaaaat terrible...

You win the thread