U2 singles 4-pacs

by Chris Nilsen

From 1979 into the mid 80's, CBS records had the exclusive rights to release U2 recordings in Ireland. During these years they issued three different 4-packs of material from different eras of the band.

4U2PLAY

The first set to be released was entitled "4U2PLAY." This set covers material from the early days up to Boy and contains reissues of these 4 singles:

• U2-3 EP: "Out of Control" (non LP demo), "Stories For Boys" (non LP demo), "Boy Girl" (non LP demo)
• "Another Day" (non LP demo), "Twilight" (non LP demo)
• "11:00 Tick Tock" (non LP track), "Touch" (non LP track)
• "I Will Follow" (Boy track), "Boy Girl" (non LP, live in London 1980)

First copies of the set had a CBS red label with black printing, and were pressed on yellow, orange, white, brown and black vinyls. Packs went out with varying combinations of these colors. Later sets were all black vinyl with the CBS red label, while even later sets used the CBS orange & yellow label (that was similar to the true Irish originals from years before) and then a different CBS red label with white CBS letters. Somewhere along the line "Another Day" was dropped from the set and replaced with "New Years Day". Some sets may have "A Day Without Me" as the replacement, but I'm unsure if they left the factory that way.

In this collector's opinion, these singles are an essential part of any U2 collection with it's inclusion of many non LP tracks and demo versions that are not available elsewhere (officially). Selling prices have reflected this in recent years. Sets without "Another Day" sell for less than sets with that single. Purchasing the singles individually could wind up costing more. Colored vinyl pressings command a premium price because of their scarcity, especially the white or brown vinyl pressings which can easily run into the hundreds of dollars.

U2 PAC II

The second pack was titled "U2 PAC II." This set covers material from Boy to October and contains reissues these 4 singles:

• "A Day Without Me" (from Boy), "Things To Make & Do" (non LP track)
• "Fire" (from October), "J Swallow" (non LP track)
• "Gloria" (from October), "I Will Follow" (live in Boston 3-6-81, non LP track)
• "A Celebration" (non LP track), "Party Girl" (non LP track)

Copies of this set were only released on black vinyl. The CBS orange & yellow label or CBS red label with white CBS letters were used for these pressings. No singles were switched or replaced like in "4U2PLAY." All of these singles had releases outside of Ireland as well.

Pac II is a nice set although it doesn't contains as many rare tracks as 4U2PLAY. Some of the non LP tracks can be found on other releases now, but some remain exclusive to the 7" releases.

U2 PAC 3

The third pack was entitled "U2 PAC 3." This set covers material from War to The Unforgettable Fire and contains these 4 singles:

• "Pride" (from The Unforgettable Fire), 4th Of July (from The Unforgettable Fire)
• "Love Comes Tumbling" (non-LP track), "60 Seconds In Kingdom Come" (non-LP track), "The Three Sunrises" (non LP track)
• "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (from War), "Two Hearts Beat As One" (from War)
• "Boomerang I" (non LP track), "Boomerang II" (non LP track)

Copies of this set were only released on black vinyl. The CBS red label with white CBS letters is the only label used for these pressings. The picture sleeves are fairly similar and are numbered 1-4. While it contains several non LP tracks, all of them have appeared on other releases. In my opinion the things that make this set collectable are the facts that it is Irish, has unique picture sleeves, and the unique song pairings which are different to other releases.