U2: Night and Day

When Frank Sinatra recorded the classic song "Night and Day" by Cole Porter it sounded as a warm cozy sensation, despite the burning yearning of wanting the loved one next to him. The old blue eyes made it all feel like a colorful happy day. In this version by all U2 the sense of desperation seems to speak higher, a more frantic sense of urgency that the same lyrics of yearning, love and desire makes you see the composition and also Bono's performance as something darker, kind of a dangerous. U2 turned it all into night. Here I'm talking the vocal performances because the sound distance between both version is easily noticeable with Sinatra making a jazzy ballad and the Irish band going with a dancing pop/rock. Yet they're both my favorite renditions of the song. The video, and only U2 has it isn't much of their most creative or exciting efforts.

Wim Wenders always makes good partnerships with U2 in several soundtracks for his films but this short was too awkward for its own sake. The early 90's was a divisive time for the band, "Achtung Baby" almost split the band and the stream of hits weren't as long as in the 1980's; and this song cover was released as a single from an album that had many artists gathered for a social contribution campaign. Excellent effort and great songs, that's why I give good word for the song and its relevance, it helped people. But the video is strangely shot, very estatic with some long sequences presenting Bono singing while the other band members appear very briefly and playing instruments that aren't even part of the music. As said about the song distinction of U2's version showing me about the night aspects of the lyrics, a dark cinematography, few lights and shot at night making of it a mysterious somber video, it's most significant quality, very edge with some thriller-like aspects - a brief shot of Bono in true despair of what this love means to him is off-putting (won't reveal what it is) but it gives a clear idea of what those long nights of torment must be while waiting for the loved one to return some they can spend their time making love. Day and night, night and day...

It's good, a very good video but not excellent as some of their previous efforts and contemporary as well. The song makes it watchable since it's an irresistible piece of music, The Edge's spooky guitar and a more oriented pop rhythm gets me everytime. 8/10