"If God Will Send His Angels" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by U2 | ||||
from the album Pop and City of Angels (soundtrack) | ||||
B-side | Slow Dancing" and "Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad | |||
Released | 8 December 1997 | |||
Format | ||||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length |
4:32 (Single version) 5:22 (Album version) |
|||
Label | Island, Warner Bros. | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Flood, Howie B and Steve Osborne | |||
U2 singles chronology | ||||
|
||||
Music video | ||||
"If God Will Send His Angels" at Artistdirect |
"Mofo"
(1997)
"If God Will Send His Angels" is the fifth single from U2's 1997 album, Pop, released on 8 December 1997. It was also featured on the City of Angels soundtrack.
The "If God Will Send His Angels" singles were backed with the following B-sides:
"Slow Dancing" is a country song written by Bono for Willie Nelson in 1989. Its first release was on a 1993 single, "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)", and performed solely by Bono and the Edge. In 1997, U2 had the opportunity to record it with Nelson. This version features the entire band, in addition to vocals by Nelson and harmonica by Mickey Raphael. Bono and Brian Eno provide backing vocals.
This song was written by Bono and the Edge for Frank Sinatra in 1992. It is a jazzy lounge song written in the style of Sinatra's music. This performance was recorded live by Bono and the Edge in a London studio for Sinatra's 80th birthday. It was played for Sinatra in the United States at a televised birthday tribute on 19 November 1995 and was likely recorded a few days earlier. It has a string arrangement by Craig Armstrong.
Although Frank Sinatra never got a chance to record it himself, his daughter, Nancy Sinatra, cut a version for her 2004 album Nancy Sinatra. U2's Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. play bass and drums respectively for the track (interestingly, they did not appear on the original recording). Sinatra changes the pronouns in the lyrics from a first-person perspective to a third-person, presumably to refer to her father.