"With or Without You" is a song by rock band U2. The third track from their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, it was released as the album's first single on 21 March 1987. The song was the group's most successful single at the time, becoming their first number-one hit in the United States by topping the BillboardHot 100 for three weeks.

"With or Without You" features sustained guitar parts played by guitarist The Edge with a prototype of the Infinite Guitar, along with impassioned vocals by lead singer Bono and a driving bassline by bassist Adam Clayton. The song originated from a demo recorded in late 1985 that the group continued to work on throughout The Joshua Treesessions. Ostensibly a troubled love song, the track's lyrics were inspired by Bono's conflicting feelings about the lives he led as a musician and domesticated man.

Critics praised the song upon its release. It is frequently performed on the band's tours, and it has appeared on a number of their compilation albums and concert films. "With or Without You" is U2's second most frequently covered song. In 2004, Rolling Stonemagazine placed the song at number 131 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

In late 1985, U2 convened at a house that drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. bought at the time to review material the group had written during The Unforgettable Fire Tour. During this time, a rough demo of "With or Without You" was written, with lead vocalist Bono composing the song's chord sequence. The band continued to work on the song at STS Studios, creating many different permutations of the track, but not making any progress. Guitarist The Edge considered the song at that point to be "awful". The track consisted of a Yamaha drum machine beat and a bass part played by bassist Adam Clayton using an Ibanez bass guitar with a short scale. According to Clayton, these early versions of the song sounded too sentimental and "very traditional because the chords just went round and round and round".

The sessions for The Joshua Treestarted in earnest in 1986, and U2 were recording at the Georgian mansion Danesmoate in Dublin in August. The group attempted to take the song in a different direction and "fuck it up", although Bono was reluctant. Under the direction of co-producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, The Edge pursued more ambient guitar playing, Clayton turned up the volume on his bass, and Mullen experimented with an electronically enhanced drum kit. Despite the work they continued to put it on the track, the group were considering abandoning the song, as they could not find an arrangement they liked.

Bono and his friend Gavin Friday continued to work on the song after Lanois and Eno declined to do so. Bono credits Friday with rescuing the song and rearranging it, believing it could be a hit. Eno added a keyboard arpeggio, similar to the one from "Bad". The song's fate was still in doubt when The Edge was sent a prototype of the Infinite Guitar by Canadian musician Michael Brook, with whom he had collaborated for the soundtrack. The instrument allowed sustained notes to be played, producing "a similar effect to the E-Bow", but with the ability to provide all the "mid-points between no sustain and infinite sustain" that the E-Bow cannot provide. The prototype included elaborate assembly instructions and as The Edge recollects, "one wrongly placed wire and you could get a nasty belt of electricity. This piece of gear would have failed even the most basic of safety regulations." On subsequent tours, his guitar technician occasionally received electric shocks from the instrument when preparing it for performances.

Listening to the backing track to "With or Without You" in the control room, Bono and Friday heard the sustained effect that The Edge was creating with the Infinite Guitar in the other room. The combination of the guitar effect and the backing track being played together made an immediate impression on those listening. According to Lanois, "I said, 'That sounded pretty cool,' so we listened back and I said, 'Jesus it's better than I thought.'" The Edge immediately recorded an Infinite Guitar part in two takes. The band considers the song's recording to be one of the album sessions' breakthrough moments, as it was recorded amidst concerns that they had run out of ideas.

Bono wrote the lyrics while struggling to reconcile his responsibilities as both a married man and a musician. His attraction to the wanderlust aspects of a musical group was often at odds with his domestic life. While writing the lyrics, he realized that neither facet of his life defined him, but rather the tension between the two did. He explains that the final lyric is about "torment" and how repressing desires only makes them stronger.

"With or Without You" is written in the key of D major and is played at a tempo of 110 beats per minute. Although certain stanzas of lyrics are repeated, the song does not follow a traditional verse-chorus form. Lanois says of it, "It has tension and builds like one of those great Roy Orbison songs, where every section is unique and never repeats. I like that kind of sophistication[...]."

The song begins with a minimal drum beat by Mullen playing eighth notes, while a backing track, Eno's synthesiser, plays a "rippling" triplet arpeggio of the chord D major. A high sustained guitar part (played by The Edge's Infinite Guitar) enters, played "dry" in the left channel before reverberating on the right. At 0:09, Clayton's bass guitar begins to play eighth notes in time with the kick drum, and the song's four-bar sequence of the chord progression D-A-Bm-G, begins. This chord progression is never explicitly played but is "implied" by the root notes played by Clayton and the guitar parts of The Edge.

"Notes actually domean something. They have power. I think of notes as being expensive. You don't just throw them around. I find the ones that do the best job and that's what I use. I suppose I'm a minimalist instinctively. I don't like to be inefficient if I can get away with it. Like on the end of 'With or Without You'. My instinct was to go with something very simple... I still think it's sort of brave, because the end of "With or Without You" could have been so much bigger, so much more of a climax, but there's this power to it which I think is even more potent because it's held back."

Bono's vocals enter at 0:28, and they are in a lower register than most of his past vocals. He stays below the middle C for the first two and a half stanzas, centering his melody on the mediant F. At the end of each of the first two stanzas, his vocals drop an octave, from A to A. At 0:58, an additional sustained guitar part joins the mix. The drums increase in intensity at 1:45, before The Edge begins playing the song's signature guitar riff at 1:53. The riff, a perfect fifth opening to a sixth, features a prominent use of delay. When the riff is played, it is answered by Bono singing "And you give yourself away", a line on which backing vocals appear at 2:06 and 2:32.

A stanza begins in which Bono sings the song's title in a high, passionate voice as the drums get heavier. At 3:03, the song bursts out in emotion as Bono begins open-throated "Oh-oh-oh-ohh" vocals, which are double-tracked, and the rhythm increases to play sixteenth notes on the guitar, cymbals, and tambourine. After another stanza of Bono repeating the song's title, the music dies down at 3:38 to a similar state as it was at the beginning of the song. Ten seconds later, Bono sings in a falsetto while a bass synthesiser doubles the bass guitar. After the vocals complete, The Edge begins a simple guitar figure. He explained that its understated nature was meant to oppose the temptation to play an intricate guitar solo as an ending. The second time the figure is played, the signature guitar riff from earlier re-appears and the song regains some of its intensity. The song concludes with a fade-out.

The lyrics ostensibly describe a troubled relationship between two lovers. The Washington Postinterpreted the song as both an acerbic love song and a tune lamenting the moral contradictions one faces with their religious faith. Although the lyrics have been interpreted in religious contexts, Bono explained that the lyrics had romantic intentions, saying, "[..] There's nothing more revolutionary than two people loving each other. One, 'cause it's so uncommon these days, and two, 'cause it's so difficult to do." In 1987, Bono explained that "And you give yourself away" lyric refers to how he sometimes feels exposed being in U2, and that his openness, both to the public and music press, can do damage to the group. Author Niall Stokes interpreted the line as encompassing the theme of "surrendering the ego" to one's love and spiritual faith.

According to Bono, the song was heavily influenced by Scott Walker's album Climate of Hunter.Clayton referred to the song's nature as a challenge to radio, saying, "You don't expect it there [on radio]. In church perhaps."

United States radio stations were allowed to play the song at 11:30 a.m. on 4 March 1987, with strong warnings by Island Records against playing it earlier. It was released as The Joshua Tree 's first single was on 21 March 1987, two and half weeks after the album was released. It was their first single to be widely issued on CD.

"With or Without You" was a huge commercial success, becoming the group's first single to top the US BillboardHot 100 chart. The song spent three weeks atop the chart, beginning on 16 May 1987. The song also topped Billboard 's Album Rock Tracks chart, Canada's Top 100, and the Irish Singles Chart. According to Billboard, the song was the group's breakthrough with American audiences. The single peaked at number four in the UK, and number two on the Dutch MegaCharts Top 40. In addition, the song spent eleven weeks in the top 75 of the UK Singles Chart. In 2009, the song re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number 43 on the week ending 31 May, based on download sales due to Shaun Smith's performance of the song in the semi-final of Britain's Got Talent.

The video was shot in Dublin in February 1987 and was co-directed by Meiert Avis and Matt Mahurin. It includes abstracts shots of dancer Morleigh Steinberg edited in between shots of the band playing the song.

"With or Without You" was first played live at the second show on the Joshua Tree Tour on 4 April 1987, and was a regular for the rest of that tour. It was played at most shows on 1989's Lovetown Tour. During these tours, two extensions to the song not present on the studio version were played: an extra verse with lyrics that typically read "We'll shine like stars in the summer night/We'll shine like stars in the winter light/One heart, one hope, one love" or modifications thereof, which appears on the Rattle and Hummovie; and a snippet of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (along with the "shine like stars" lyrics) which can be heard in the live album and concert film Live from Paris. Since the PopMart Tour, it has been more common for Bono to repeat the "Ohh" at the climax of the song, with the "shine like stars" verse sung rarely.

"With or Without You" was played at most Zoo TV Tour concerts and every concert on the PopMart Tour. It was dropped from the setlist during the third leg of the Elevation Tour. It was initially a rare inclusion during the Vertigo Tour - over the two months of the tour's first leg, it was only played four times. It became a regular concert inclusion during stadium concerts on the second leg in Europe and remained in the setlist for the third leg. It has been played on every night of the U2 360° Tour, occasionally with the "shine like stars" coda.

Live performances of the song also appear in the group's concert films Zoo TV: Live from Sydney, PopMart: Live from Mexico City, Elevation 2001: Live from Boston, U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle, Vertigo 05: Live from Milan, and U2 3D.

"With or Without You" received critical praise upon the release of The Joshua Tree. Rolling Stonecalled it an "inventively arranged tune... that builds from a soothing beginning to a resounding climax". Bill Graham of Hot Presspraised the song, suggesting it may be Bono's "most controlled vocal, building from an almost conversational first verse over a bare rhythm section to a soul-baring confession". Graham suggested the lyric "And you give yourself away" was essential to U2's message. The Sunday Independentsuggested that the song was proof the band could be commercially accessible, yet not resort to rock clichés. NMEcalled it "some kind of love song" and found musical and lyrical symmetry between the song and the group's 1981 album October. Readers of Rolling Stonevoted "With or Without You" the "Best Single" in a 1987 end-of-year poll.

"With or Without You" has become one of U2's most well-known songs, and it often appears in music critics' rankings of the best songs of all-time. In 2000, the song appeared at number eight on Rolling Stone 's list of "100 Greatest Pop Songs", compiled by Rolling Stoneand MTV music critics to rank songs released since The Beatles' breakthrough. In 2004, Rolling Stonemagazine placed the song at number 131 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The song subsequently appeared as one of seven U2 songs in the 2006 music reference book 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories, and Secrets. U2 have included the song on two of their compilation albums, The Best of 1980–1990and U218 Singles.

"Where the Streets Have No Name" · "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" · " With or Without You " · "Bullet the Blue Sky" · "Running to Stand Still" · "Red Hill Mining Town" · "In God's Country" · "Trip Through Your Wires" · "One Tree Hill" · "Exit" · "Mothers of the Disappeared"

1980: "Another Day" • "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" • "A Day Without Me" • "I Will Follow" • 1981: "Fire" • "Gloria" • 1982: "A Celebration" • 1983: "New Year's Day" • "Two Hearts Beat as One" • "Sunday Bloody Sunday" • 1984: "Pride (In the Name of Love)" • 1985: "The Unforgettable Fire" • 1987: " With or Without You " • "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" • "Where the Streets Have No Name" • "In God's Country" • 1988: "One Tree Hill" • "Desire" • "Angel of Harlem" • 1989: "When Love Comes to Town" (with B.B. King) • "All I Want Is You"

1991: "The Fly" • "Mysterious Ways" • 1992: "One" • "Even Better Than the Real Thing" • "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" • 1993: "Numb" • "Lemon" • "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" • 1995: "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" • "Miss Sarajevo" (as Passengers) 1997: "Discothèque" • "Staring at the Sun" • "Last Night on Earth" • "Please" • "If God Will Send His Angels" • "Mofo" • 1998: "Sweetest Thing"

2000: "Beautiful Day" • 2001: "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" • "Elevation" • "Walk On" • 2002: "Electrical Storm" • 2004: "Take Me to the Clouds Above" (LMC vs. U2) • "Vertigo" • 2005: "All Because of You" • "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" • "City of Blinding Lights" • "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (live, with Paul McCartney) • 2006: "One" (with Mary J. Blige) • "The Saints Are Coming" (with Green Day) • 2007: "Window in the Skies" • 2008: "The Ballad of Ronnie Drew" (with The Dubliners, Kíla, and A Band of Bowsies) • 2009: "Get on Your Boots" • "Magnificent" • "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"