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U2 Sleeve Surprises
by Patrice Bruhat
In my
previous article, I've talked about familiar songs that
have unique and hidden version.
This time I'm going to talk you about sleeves that can reveal
some surprises. When you see a record you recognize its sleeve,
but is it really the same sleeve than the one you own at home?
Sometimes you have to put the 2 sleeves side by side to see
the difference. Why? Because the photo or the artwork looks
familiar but it's slightly different.
Let's start and you'll understand what I mean.
Two Hearts Beat as One and Sunday Bloody Sunday
singles
Both have the same front cover (except of course the Japanese
7"), but what about the back cover? You might think it
was the same for all the releases but it's not. There are three
different pictures of the band, let's call them: "Bono
arms up", "Bono arms down", and "Bono arms
crossed".
- Two Hearts 12" from all countries have a picture of
"Bono arms up"
- Two Hearts 7" from all countries EXCEPT USA have a
picture of "Bono arms up" (below middle)
- Two Hearts 7" from USA has a unique picture of "Bono
arms crossed" (below left)
- Sunday Bloody Sunday 12" from all countries except
Holland has a picture of "Bono arms down" (below
right)
- Sunday Bloody Sunday 12" from Holland has picture of
"Bono arms up"
  
(Thanks to Jan Joosten and Daniele Paladini for seeing those
differences.)
When Love Comes to Town
There are two different photos on front cover, but I can't
tell you on which releases you can find them. One photo has
the Edge holding his hat with his left hand, and not on the
other.
With or Without You
The difference is between CD single and vinyl singles. Take
a look at The Edge on the front cover of the CD single (below
right) and then look at any 12" or 7" vinyl -- the
photo is completely different. (12-inch single below left)
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
I've seen only one different photo, which is on the USA cassette
in longbox (below right). The photo is not the same as on any
other releases on vinyl/CD/cassette. (The 12-inch vinyl cover
is below left.) I'm not aware of another use of this photo,
which shows Larry's head tilted more to the side than the common
cover. The catalog number of this US longbox tape is 96757-9.
The Joshua Tree
You thought the UK tape cover was the same as the LP or as
the new edition CD? Wrong. Give it a closer look and you'll
see (especially on Larry) that the photo on the cover is different.
I think everybody has noticed that old CD releases have a different,
blurred photo of the band. Catalog number of the UK tape is
UC2 6.
 Discotheque
All CDs have the same picture on them -- U2 are on the sofa
-- except one CD which has a unique picture of the sofa without
U2!! It's the 2-track CD from Australia; catalog number is 854
774-2.
Now, here is some records that have the same photos, but artwork
are little bit different:
Even Better Than the Real Thing
The difference is on the French 7" (below right), it has
a bigger U2 logo(and title on front sleeve than the standard
UK release (below left). The French version catalog number is
866 976.
 
The Fly
A Brazilian promo 12" (below right) has a big U2 logo
on top right corner of front cover (and also the small standard
U2 logo). Catalog number: 2801 531. The standard UK cover image
is below left.
New Year's Day
Everybody knows the French 7" has red letters on front
cover. In addition to that, the Spanish 7" has the price
on the cover. The German 7" has the catalog number on the
cover. And the most interesting is the Swedish 7" (below
right) which has inverted colors on the titles. "U2"
is written in black and the title is in grey; usually it's inverted
(below left - UK version).
 
Under a Blood Red Sky
I've seen two editions of the Venezuelan LP -- one has black
titles on the front cover, and the other has grey titles.
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