U2 "Boy"

Boy is the debut studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was released on 20 October 1980 by Island Records and was produced by Steve Lillywhite. Boy contains many songs from the band's 40-song catalogue at the time, including two tracks that were re-recorded from their original versions on their debut release, the EP Three.

Boy was recorded from July to September 1980 at Dublin's Windmill Lane Studios, which became U2's chosen recording location during the 1980s. It was also their first time working with Lillywhite, who employed unorthodox production techniques such as recording Mullen's drums in a stairwell and recording smashed bottles and forks played against a spinning bicycle wheel. The band found Lillywhite to be very encouraging and creative, and he subsequently became a frequent producer of their recorded work. Thematically, the album's lyrics reflect on adolescence, innocence, and the passage into adulthood, themes represented on its cover through the photo of a young boy's face.

Boy received generally positive reviews and included U2's first single to receive airplay on US radio, "I Will Follow". The album peaked at number 52 in the UK and number 63 in the US, and was followed by the band's first tour of continental Europe and the US, the Boy Tour. In 2003, Boy was ranked number 417 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2008, a remastered edition of Boy was released.

Originally, Boy was slated to be produced by Martin Hannett, an in-demand producer at that time for his critically acclaimed work with Joy Division. Hannett had produced U2's second single "11 O'Clock Tick Tock". However, the experience of working with him had not been a happy one for U2, and the idea of him producing the album was dropped by Island Records after the band's objections. Producer Steve Lillywhite was sent a copy of the band's first release U2-3 by Island to gauge his interest in working with the band. After seeing U2 perform live, Lillywhite agreed to produce their single "A Day Without Me". Although the song failed to chart, the band found they could work amicably with him and agreed to have him produce their debut studio album.

Boy was recorded at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin from July to September 1980. Lillywhite had first come to prominence for his work on the 1978's debut single of Siouxsie and the Banshees, "Hong Kong Garden" which featured a peculiar hook played by a glockenspiel. U2, who listened to Siouxsie and the Banshees, used Lillywhite's skills to add the distinctive glockenspiel part on "I Will Follow". The drums were recorded in the stairwell of the studio's reception area due to Lillywhite's desire to achieve "this wonderful clattery sound". They had to wait until the receptionist went home in the evenings as the phone rang through the day and even occasionally in the evening.

Some of the songs, including "An Cat Dubh" and "The Ocean", were written and recorded at the studio. Many of the songs were taken from the band's 40-song repertoire at the time, including "Stories for Boys", "Out of Control" and "Twilight".


Guitarist the Edge recorded all the songs using his natural stained Gibson Explorer. He drew inspiration from music he was listening to at the time, including Television and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Early vinyl and some cassette copies of the album have an unlisted and untitled thirty-second instrumental sample of "Saturday Night", a song that would become "Fire" (on 1981's October album), at the very end of the album, after "Shadows and Tall Trees". This was dropped from most vinyl copies and all early CD versions. It was re-instated as an unlisted 12th track on the 2008 remastered editions of Boy and appeared in full for the first time as "Saturday Night" on the Deluxe Edition B-sides CD included with the 2008 remastered version of Boy. The thirty-second sample is now known as "Saturday Matinee" since the release of the album on online streaming services. Until the remastered release of Boy, it was thought to be "Fire."


Some pressings of the album, mostly in North America, indexed the track length of "An Cat Dubh" and "Into the Heart" at "6:21" and "1:53", respectively. The 2008 remastered edition of the album reinstated the original European lengths of 4:47 and 3:28. Early compact disc releases (identified by being West German-pressed and in a digipak) combined the two songs into a single track at 8:15, as did some US jewel-case versions (on the disc but not on the packaging).

On 9 April 2008 U2.com confirmed that Boy, along with the band's other first three albums, October and War would be re-released as newly remastered versions. The remastered album was released on 21 July 2008 in the UK, with the US version following it the next day. As with The Joshua Tree, the cover artwork has been standardised to the original UK release. The remaster of Boy was released in three different formats:

• Standard format: A single CD with re-mastered audio and restored packaging. Includes a 16-page booklet featuring previously unseen photos, full lyrics and new liner notes by Paul Morley. The 11 tracks match the previous release of the album.
• Deluxe format: A standard CD (as above) and a bonus CD including b-sides, live tracks and rarities. Also includes a 32-page booklet with previously unseen photos, full lyrics, new liner notes by Paul Morley, and explanatory notes on the bonus material by the Edge.
• Vinyl format: A single album re-mastered version on 180 gram vinyl with restored packaging.