"In a Little While" came out of a jam with the band during the All That You Can't Leave Behind sessions. Bono has noted that his voice was in terrible shape at the time of the recording of this song.

The song is addressed to Ali Hewson. In the band's biography, Bono states that people at school used to call him a baby-snatcher for dating a girl from the year below, this is shown in the lyrics of the song: A little girl with Spanish eyes, when I saw her in a pram they pushed her by / Oh my, my how you've grown.

The lyrics refer to a "lovestruck hangover", in the vein of their Achtung Baby track "Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World," which describes a similar topic. However, Bono has noted in live performances that it became a gospel song after he heard that Joey Ramone, the iconic front man of the punk band, the Ramones, listened to this song as his final one on his deathbed; therefore, U2 dedicated the song to him for the rest of the tour.

The song was played at over half of the shows on the Elevation Tour. It was played for most of the first leg, about half of the second leg, and not at all on the third leg. On the live concert film, Elevation 2001: Live from Boston, Bono introduces the song by explaining it was the last song Joey Ramone heard on his deathbed. He notes his honor of having one of his favorite musicians loving a song of his.

The Killers' frontman Brandon Flowers performed the song as a duet with Bono in Las Vegas in 2006 on the Vertigo Tour. This was one of only two performances of the song on the Vertigo Tour. However, it was snippeted almost forty times during performances of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".

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