Genre Rock | Label Island | |
Released 11 May 2015 (2015-05-11) Recorded 2010–2014 in California and New York Length 3:43 (album version)
3:46 (radio mix) Writer(s) U2 (music), Bono and the Edge (lyrics) | ||
"Song for Someone" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the fourth track from their thirteenth studio album, Songs of Innocence, and was released as its third single on 11 May 2015. It was produced by Danger Mouse and Ryan Tedder. To promote the single, the band performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The song has been performed in every show during the Innocence + Experience Tour. It was also performed specially as a part of "Red Nose Day". Lead vocalist Bono has described it as a love song dedicated to his wife, Ali. He told Rolling Stone, "Before I even knew what commitment was, I ended up as a young man in the arms of this young woman, in a world somewhat hostile to the concept of the childhood sweetheart and a first love."
The music video for the song is a short film featuring Woody Harrelson and his daughter Zoe. A second video was released August 27th, 2015 and premiered exclusively on Facebook for 24 hours. The clip quickly amassed close to a million views. The video was directed by Matt Mahurin, who had worked with the band on previous videos such as "Love is Blindness" and "With Or Without You."
As part of a cross-promotion with Apple, fans at select European concerts during the Innocence + Experience tour can enter the "Experience Bus", a vehicle offering virtual reality headsets playing an alternate video for the song. It features a performance of the song by the band from the tour's "e-stage", intercut with footage of fans singing along. The new version of the video was made available for streaming on the VRSE app.
Rolling Stone compared the track to the band's Grammy Award-winning single, "Walk On", stating that the song "begins with gentle acoustic guitars before gradually building up to a "Walk On"-style crescendo." Consequence of Sound cited "Song For Someone" as one of the "essential tracks" of Songs Of Innocence.
The song has peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Adult Top 40 chart, number 13 on the Billboard Adult Alternative Songs chart, number 19 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and number 30 on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs Chart.