It features a chorus sung in Latin, from the liturgical "Gloria in Excelsis Deo." It was one of their lowest-charting singles on the UK singles chart, peaking at #55 but was more successful in Ireland and New Zealand, reaching the Top 20.

Allmusic cited the song as an example of "when U2 marry the message, melody, and sound together... the results are thoroughly impressive," while Pitchfork said the song "displays some musical dynamism, but its Latin-language chorus tempers its anthemic qualities."

"Gloria" highlights bassist Adam Clayton as it features three styles of playing in one song (using a pick for the most part, playing with fingers during the slide guitar by the Edge, then a "slap & pop" solo towards the end).

The chorus "Gloria in te Domine / Gloria exultate" translates to "Glory in You, Lord / Glory, exalt [Him]" with "exalt" in the imperative mood, a reference to Psalm 30:2 (in te Domine, speravi). The song also contains references to Colossians 2:9-10 ("Only in You I'm complete") and James 5:7-9 ("The door is open / You're standing there").

The song also references Van Morrison's 1964 love song "Gloria." Bono is quoted in the 1994 book Race of Angels:

"I actually really like that lyric. It was written really quickly. I think it expresses the thing of language again, this thing of speaking in tongues, looking for a way out of language. 'I try to sing this song... I try to stand up but I can't find my feet.' And taking this Latin thing, this hymn thing. It's so outrageous at the end going to the full Latin whack. That still makes me smile. It's so wonderfully mad and epic and operatic. And of course Gloria is about a woman in the Van Morrison sense. Being an Irish band, you're conscious of that. And I think that what happened at that moment was very interesting: people saw that you could actually write about a woman in the spiritual sense and that you could write about God in the sexual sense. And that was a moment. Because before that there had been a line. That you can actually sing to God, but it might be a woman? Now, you can pretend it's about God, but not a woman!"

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Wikipedia