"Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" is a song by Irish
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
band
U2. It is the third track on their eleventh studio album, ''
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
''How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb'' is the eleventh studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was released on 22 November 2004 in the United Kingdom by Island Records and a day later in the United States by Interscope Records. It was produced by ...
'' (2004), and was released as the album's second single worldwide except in North America on 7 February 2005. Originally titled "Tough", the song is lyrically about the relationship between the band's lead vocalist
Bono
Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by the nickname Bono ( ), is an Irish singer-songwriter and activist. He is a founding member, the lead vocalist, and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Bono is known for his impassioned voca ...
and his father Bob Hewson, who died of cancer in 2001.
It debuted at number one on the
UK Singles Chart becoming the band's sixth number-one single in the United Kingdom.
It also topped the charts in Canada, Scotland and Spain, and reached the top 10 in Denmark, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway. The song won two
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
s at the
48th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony in 2006:
Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and
Song of the Year.
Background and writing
Lead vocalist
Bono
Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by the nickname Bono ( ), is an Irish singer-songwriter and activist. He is a founding member, the lead vocalist, and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Bono is known for his impassioned voca ...
and guitarist
the Edge
David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), better known as the Edge or simply Edge,McCormick (2006), pp. 21, 23–24 is a British-Irish musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist, keyboardist, and backing vocalist o ...
first began working on the song during U2's 1997–1998
PopMart Tour.
[McCormick (2006), p. 323] During the recording of U2's 2000 album ''
All That You Can't Leave Behind
''All That You Can't Leave Behind'' is the tenth studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, and was released on 30October 2000 through Island Records worldwide and through Interscope Records in the Unit ...
'', Bono was aware that his father, Bob Hewson, was in the terminal stages of a bout with cancer. At that point, the song had the working title of "Tough", as that was the impression Bono always had of his father; he called him: "A tough old boot of a guy. Irish, Dub, north side Dubliner, very cynical about the world and the people in it, but very charming and funny with it."
[Stokes (2005), pp. 168–169] The Edge said that when the band played the song together, "it was a bit cloying". Bassist
Adam Clayton
Adam Charles Clayton (born 13 March 1960) is an English-Irish musician who is the bass guitarist of the rock music, rock band U2. Born in Oxfordshire, England, he lived in County Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland after his family moved to ...
said the song in its original form "had a very traditional feel", and that the group spent extensive time trying to change "the harmonic content" while still "retaining the strong melodies". The band subsequently decided not to release the song on ''All That You Can't Leave Behind''. After Bob died in 2001, Bono sang a version of the song at his funeral.
During the recording of U2's following album ''
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
''How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb'' is the eleventh studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was released on 22 November 2004 in the United Kingdom by Island Records and a day later in the United States by Interscope Records. It was produced by ...
'', they revisited the song. The group continued to struggle with it, as the Edge felt the chord sequence was too obvious. Producer
Daniel Lanois
Daniel Roland Lanois ( , ; born September 19, 1951) is a Canadian record producer and musician.
He has produced albums by artists including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Harold Budd ...
aided the band with the beginning of the song. At Bono's suggestion, the bass in the verses was dropped a
tone
Tone may refer to:
Visual arts and color-related
* Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory
* Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color
* Toning (coin), color change in coins
* ...
before the
relative minor, a change the band believed had been a breakthrough.
After what Clayton estimated to be about the third or fourth rewrite of the song,
producer
Steve Lillywhite
Stephen Alan Lillywhite (born 15 March 1955) is an English record producer. Since he began his career in 1977, Lillywhite has been credited on over 500 records, and has collaborated with a variety of musicians including new wave acts The Alarm ...
listened to it with Bono and the Edge. He critiqued the track, telling them that it did not have a chorus and that each verse simply was followed by the line "sometimes you can't make it on your own".
Lillywhite thought that the track needed "a bridge to lift it to the chorus line".
Bono then asked for a guitar to play and spontaneously, in
falsetto
Falsetto ( , ; Italian language, Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave.
It is produced by the vibration of the ...
, sang the lines "And it's you when I look na na na na / And it's you du du du du du du du / Sometimes you can't make it on your own".
Even though Bono had not yet written the rest of the lyrics for this new segment, Lillywhite said: "all of a sudden the song was finished. That song had been around for the best part of five years and no one had ever said to them that it didn't have a chorus."
Bono recorded his vocals in a single
take
A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.
Film
In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each ...
during a visit by
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...
chairman
Jimmy Iovine
James Iovine ( ; born March 11, 1953) is an American entrepreneur, former Music executive, record executive, and media proprietor. He is the co-founder of Interscope Records and became chairman and CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscop ...
to the studio.
Release
"Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" was released in the United Kingdom on 7 February 2005 and in Australia the following week.
In the former country, the song was added to
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...
's C-list playlist on 29 December 2004. It moved to the B-list a week later and to the A-list a week after that. In the United States, the song was added to several radio formats between February and March.
In Canada, the song was released on 22 March 2005, a month after "
All Because of You" was issued there.
Chart performance
The song debuted at number one in the UK, marking the first time that a U2 album has produced two UK number 1 hits (following "
Vertigo
Vertigo is a condition in which a person has the sensation that they are moving, or that objects around them are moving, when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. It may be associated with nausea, vomiting, perspira ...
" in November 2004).
The single was also the third release in the United States. It reached number 15 on the Adult Top 40 chart, and number 29 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in April 2005. It also reached number 97 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100.
Formats and track listings
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
See also
*
List of covers of U2 songs – Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own
*
List of number-one singles of 2005 (Canada)
*
List of number-one singles of 2005 (Spain)
*
2005 in British music charts
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
*
*
External links
Top40-Charts.com – "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" Single Charts Page– last accessed on 26 October 2005
*
All Music – U2 Charts and Awards– last accessed on 26 October 2005
{{Authority control
Island Records singles
2000s ballads
2004 songs
2005 singles
Commemoration songs
Grammy Award for Song of the Year
Canadian Singles Chart number-one singles
Number-one singles in Scotland
UK singles chart number-one singles
U2 songs
Rock ballads
Interscope Records singles
Song recordings produced by Jacknife Lee
Songs written by Bono
Songs written by the Edge
Songs written by Adam Clayton
Songs written by Larry Mullen Jr.
Song recordings produced by Chris Thomas (record producer)
Song recordings produced by Steve Lillywhite
Music videos directed by Phil Joanou
Black-and-white music videos
Number-one singles in Spain
Song recordings produced by Nellee Hooper
Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal