#21 The Joshua Tree by U2
The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time
- 2025 Album Rank
- 21
- 2011 Album Rank
- 9
- Total Points
- 2056
- Year Released
- 1987
- Billboard 200 Chart Peak
- 1
- Weeks at #1
- 19
- RIAA Sales Certification
- 10,000,000 (Multi-Platinum)
- Buy Album
- Apple Music Amazon
The Joshua Tree Album Details
Released in March 1987, The Joshua Tree marked a creative and commercial peak for U2, transforming them into global superstars. Inspired by American landscapes, politics, and spirituality, the album fused atmospheric guitar textures with urgent, poetic lyrics that explored both personal and sociopolitical themes. With Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois returning as producers, U2 refined the sonic experimentation of The Unforgettable Fire while returning to more structured rock songcraft.
The album opens with an iconic trio Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, and With or Without You that became instant classics. Throughout the record, The Edge's delay-heavy guitar creates vast, echoing landscapes, while Bono's lyrics shift between the sacred and the political. Tracks like Bullet the Blue Sky and Mothers of the Disappeared confront U.S. foreign policy and Latin American human rights abuses, while One Tree Hill and Running to Stand Still meditate on grief, addiction, and spiritual longing. The Joshua Tree crystallized U2's ambition to make rock music with both moral weight and cinematic grandeur.
Won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1988.
Other albums by U2 on the chart: Achtung Baby.
Interesting Facts about The Joshua Tree
- The album's title was inspired by a photo shoot in the Mojave Desert, where the band encountered the Joshua tree, a biblical symbol that they felt captured the spiritual themes of the album.
- With or Without You was built around a prototype of the Infinite Guitar, developed by Canadian musician Michael Brook. The Edge used it to create the song's endlessly sustained tones.
- One Tree Hill was written in memory of Greg Carroll, a Māori roadie and close friend of the band, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1986. U2 had attended his traditional Māori funeral in New Zealand.
- The album's sound was heavily shaped by American blues, gospel, and folk traditions, particularly evident on Trip Through Your Wires and Running to Stand Still.
- Bullet the Blue Sky was inspired by Bono's visit to El Salvador, where he witnessed the violence of U.S. backed military operations. The song's growling guitar was recorded with Bono instructing The Edge to play as if he were "a tank rolling over a hillside."
- The album was initially going to be called The Two Americas, highlighting the contrast between America's promise and its darker realities. The final title was chosen late in the process.
- Red Hill Mining Town was inspired by the UK miners' strike and originally intended as a single. A music video was even shot, but the band was unhappy with the vocal take and shelved the release.
- During recording, the band often clashed over creative direction. Bono and The Edge wanted more experimentation; Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. pushed for a more classic rock sound. The album's blend of both approaches became its signature.
- The Joshua Tree was the fastest-selling album in UK chart history at the time of its release and went on to sell over 25 million copies worldwide.
- In 2017, U2 embarked on a 30th-anniversary tour of the album, performing it in full for the first time and reviving interest in several rarely played deep cuts.
- The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014 for its cultural and historical significance.
The Joshua Tree Track List
- Where the Streets Have No Name - Reached #13 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
- I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - Reached #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
- With or Without You - Reached #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
- 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
