Sunday, 17 May 2009

Magnificent Not

I noticed today that Magnificent has only reached 42 in the UK singles charts since it's release. What a shame, such a wonderful song has fallen below the radar. Some of the blame must rest with U2's PR, there was little promotion on it's release and of course the video came out after the single which is madness - plus that video was not an attention grabber. I have rarely even heard the song being played on the radio.

Another possible reason for the low chart position is that, to my knowledge, this is the first U2 single not released on CD in the UK. I know downloading music is what a lot of people do nowadays (including myself), but also there are still many - often older people who form a large proportion of U2's fans - who still prefer to buy CDs. Maybe this was a mis-calculation on the record company's part. And it's not just the UK, the song has performed badly pretty much worldwide.

Of course chart positions are not everything, Magnificent is a fabulous song no matter where it gets to in the charts. But it makes me wonder what lies in store for the band in the future, something I've been thinking about a lot recently and will write more about soon.


  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

  2. It's all rather worrying isnt it?


  3. Yeah it is, and such a shame because it's one of the best songs they've produced in a long time.