Yes, and the credit is unusual in how flatly it is shared. Album after album prints the music to U2 as a band rather than to any individual, with the lyrics to Bono. The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby both carry exactly that split. Songs of Innocence widened the lyric line to Bono and the Edge. The outside recognition matches the sleeve: in 2006 all four members collected ASCAP awards for writing 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' and 'Vertigo', and in 2025 the Ivors Academy handed the band its Fellowship for songwriting, making them the first Irish songwriters to receive it.
By the Numbers
15
Studio Albums
201
Tracks Credited
98%
Self-Written
150-170 million
Records Sold
50
Years Active
152
Collaborators
Authorship Breakdown 197 / 201 self-written
Who wrote the songs?
Across all 201 tracks: how many U2 wrote alone, how many they co-wrote, and how many were written by others. The bracket marks every track they hold any writing credit on.
U2 has a writing credit98%
91%
7%
2%
Sole author182tracks91%
Co-written15tracks7%
Outside writers4tracks2%
Role Fingerprint how they contribute
U2's roles across the catalogue
Share of all 201 tracks where they are personally credited, by role.
Lyricist (words)98%
Composer (music)98%
Producer25%
Performer99%
Member Credit Breakdown share of tracks each member is credited on
Percentage of all 201 tracks, across every album, where each member holds a credit - split by role.
Member
Period
Lyrics
Music
Production
Performance
Bono
1976-present
97%
98%
0%
1%
The Edge
1976-present
41%
98%
25%
2%
Adam Clayton
1976-present
11%
98%
0%
0%
Larry Mullen Jr.
1976-present
11%
98%
0%
0%
Dik Evans Former
1976-1978
0%
0%
0%
0%
Ivan McCormick Former
1976
0%
0%
0%
0%
Authorship Over Time writing credit per album
U2's writing credit per album, in release order. Hover any bar for the album.
avg 98%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
76%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
1980Boy
1981October
1983War
1984The Unforgettable Fire
1987The Joshua Tree
1988Rattle and Hum
1991Achtung Baby
1993Zooropa
1997Pop
2000All That You Can't Leave Behind
2004How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
2009No Line on the Horizon
2014Songs of Innocence
2017Songs of Experience
2023Songs of Surrender
Early · 100% written
Mid · 94% written
Late · 100% written
Authorship by Decade track-weighted
94%
1980s
Boy, October +4 more
100%
1990s
Achtung Baby, Zooropa +1 more
100%
2000s
All That You Can't Leave Behind, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb +1 more
100%
2010s
Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience
100%
2020s
Songs of Surrender
Authorship Spectrum pure performer to complete author
Where U2 sits on the scale from a pure performer (0%, sings songs written by others) to a complete author (100%, writes everything). The bright marker is their catalogue authorship score, plotted against other artists on the site.
U2
Other artists on the site
Reference artists spread across the scale, closest by genre and era.
Written by Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr., Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Fire
October
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Gloria
October
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
New Year's Day
War
Written by Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr., Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Two Hearts Beat as One
War
Written by Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr., Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Sunday Bloody Sunday
War
Written by Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr., Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Pride (In the Name of Love)
The Unforgettable Fire
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
The Unforgettable Fire
The Unforgettable Fire
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
With or Without You
The Joshua Tree
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
The Joshua Tree
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Where the Streets Have No Name
The Joshua Tree
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
In God's Country
The Joshua Tree
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
One Tree Hill
The Joshua Tree
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Desire
Rattle and Hum
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Angel of Harlem
Rattle and Hum
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
When Love Comes to Town
Rattle and Hum
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
All I Want Is You
Rattle and Hum
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
The Fly
Achtung Baby
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Mysterious Ways
Achtung Baby
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
One
Achtung Baby
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Even Better Than the Real Thing
Achtung Baby
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
Achtung Baby
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Numb
Zooropa
Written by The Edge, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Lemon
Zooropa
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Zooropa
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Discothèque
Pop
Written by Bono, The Edge, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr., Simon Pyke
Co-wrote
Staring at the Sun
Pop
Written by Bono, The Edge, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Last Night on Earth
Pop
Written by Bono, The Edge, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr., Juvenal de Holanda Vasconcelos, Denise Milan
Co-wrote
Please
Pop
Written by Bono, The Edge, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
If God Will Send His Angels
Pop
Written by Bono, The Edge, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Mofo
Pop
Written by Bono, The Edge, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Beautiful Day
All That You Can't Leave Behind
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
All That You Can't Leave Behind
Written by Bono, The Edge, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Elevation
All That You Can't Leave Behind
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Walk On
All That You Can't Leave Behind
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Vertigo
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Written by Bono, The Edge, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
City of Blinding Lights
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
All Because of You
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Get On Your Boots
No Line on the Horizon
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Magnificent
No Line on the Horizon
Written by Bono, The Edge, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr., Brian Peter George Eno, Daniel Roland Lanois
Co-wrote
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
No Line on the Horizon
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)
Songs of Innocence
Written by Bono, The Edge, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Every Breaking Wave
Songs of Innocence
Written by Bono, The Edge, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Song for Someone
Songs of Innocence
Written by Bono, The Edge, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
You're the Best Thing About Me
Songs of Experience
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Get Out of Your Own Way
Songs of Experience
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way
Songs of Experience
Written by Bono, Paul David Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Charles Clayton, Laurence Joseph Mullen Jr.
Wrote it
None of the signature songs above fall in this category.
Bubble size = tracks worked on together. Showing the 150 most frequent of 152. BE Bob Ezrin · F Flood · JL Jacknife Lee
The Authorship Story
Data Insight
U2 credit almost everything to the band rather than to a writer, and the data shows it plainly: all four members carry a writing credit on 197 of the 201 tracks here. That is the whole point of how they work, since songs are built from jams and the split never tries to say who brought what. 182 tracks have no outside name at all. The 15 co-writes are mostly the producers who shaped the sound, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, and the four tracks with no U2 credit are covers from Rattle and Hum, including two Bob Dylan songs.
Quick Facts
Lineup never changedBono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. have been the only members since Dik Evans left in March 1978
Grammy record22 Grammy Awards, more than any other band
Hall of FameUK Music Hall of Fame in 2004, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2005
US chart runEight number-one albums, the third-most of any group, and the first group to top the US chart in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s
Touring moneySecond-highest-grossing live act from 1980 to 2022, at $2.127 billion from 26.178 million tickets sold
Irish record21 number-one singles in Ireland, the most of any act
Creative Fingerprint
U2 print the same credit on almost every sleeve, music to the band as a whole and lyrics to Bono, with the Edge's effects-driven guitar doing most of the musical shaping, and the circle widened later as producers joined the writing in Fez for No Line on the Horizon, the Edge took a share of the lyric credit on Songs of Innocence, and outside writers turned up on Songs of Experience.
The Story
U2 formed in Dublin in 1976, when the four members were teenagers at Mount Temple Comprehensive School with little musical training between them. The lineup has never changed: Bono on lead vocals, the Edge on guitar and keyboards, Adam Clayton on bass and Larry Mullen Jr. on drums. Their songs are credited to the band as a unit rather than to individual writers, with Bono carrying the lyrics and the Edge shaping most of the music, an arrangement that has held across fifteen studio albums and roughly fifty years.
Awards & Recognition
22 Grammy Awards, more than any other band, starting with their first win in 1988 for The Joshua Tree
Seven Grammy Awards for All That You Can't Leave Behind
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb won all nine of its Grammy nominations
Eight Brit Awards from 20 nominations, including five wins for International Group of the Year, and the first international group to win the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music
Four Ivor Novello Awards
Two Golden Globe Awards
ASCAP awards in 2006 to all four members for writing 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' and 'Vertigo'
Inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2005
Kennedy Center Honors in 2022, only the fifth musical group to receive them
Ivors Academy Fellowship in 2025 for their songwriting, the first Irish songwriters given the honour
Frequently Asked Questions U2
Does U2 write their own songs?
Yes, and the credit is unusual in how flatly it is shared. Album after album prints the music to U2 as a band rather than to any individual, with the lyrics to Bono. The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby both carry exactly that split. Songs of Innocence widened the lyric line to Bono and the Edge. The outside recognition matches the sleeve: in 2006 all four members collected ASCAP awards for writing 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' and 'Vertigo', and in 2025 the Ivors Academy handed the band its Fellowship for songwriting, making them the first Irish songwriters to receive it.
Who writes U2's lyrics?
Bono. The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby and Songs of Experience all credit every lyric to him alone. Songs of Innocence is the exception, crediting the lyrics to Bono and the Edge together. His subjects run from the Troubles in Northern Ireland on 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' to Dublin heroin addiction on 'Running to Stand Still' and the women of COMADRES on 'Mothers of the Disappeared'.
Why are U2 songs credited to the band instead of to individual members?
Because that is what the sleeves say. The music line on a U2 record reads U2, not a list of names, so no single member is set out as the composer of a given song. Bono is named separately for lyrics. When a song does have an outside contributor, the credit says so, as on 'Lights of Home' from Songs of Experience, where the music is credited to U2 with Alana, Danielle and Este Haim and Ariel Rechtshaid.
Does the Edge write U2's music?
He does more of the musical shaping than anyone else, though the credit never says so. The band's anthemic sound is built on his chiming, effects-based guitar, and he has said he uses effects to spark ideas while writing rather than just to colour a finished part. Rolling Stone put Bono and the Edge together at number 35 on its list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, and ranked the Edge the 38th-greatest guitarist. He also produced Songs of Surrender on his own.
Do outside songwriters work with U2?
On the later records, yes. During the 2007 sessions in Fez for No Line on the Horizon, producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois took part in the songwriting itself. Songs of Experience credits the Haim sisters and Ariel Rechtshaid on the music for 'Lights of Home' and Brian Burton on 'Ordinary Love'. Everything else on that album still runs under the plain U2 music credit.
Not since 4 March 1978, when the Edge's older brother Dik Evans played a farewell show and walked offstage, leaving the four-piece. Ivan McCormick had gone in 1976. The only later gap was live: Bram van den Berg drummed for the band in 2023 and 2024 while Larry Mullen Jr. sat out the Sphere residency, and Mullen was back for the 2026 EPs.
What is U2's best-selling album?
The Joshua Tree from 1987, with 25 million copies sold worldwide and 10 million shipped in the US. It reached number one in more than 20 countries and produced the band's only US number-one singles, 'With or Without You' and 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'.
Did U2 write 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' about a real event?
Yes. Bono wrote it about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and it sits with a run of U2 songs pulled straight from current events. 'Mothers of the Disappeared' was written for COMADRES, the women whose children were killed or forcibly disappeared by the Salvadoran government during the civil war there. That habit was still going in 2026, when the Days of Ash EP carried protest songs about the killings of Renee Good, Sarina Esmailzadeh and Awdah Hathaleen.
Are the songs on Songs of Surrender new?
No. It is 40 songs from the back catalogue re-recorded and reinterpreted, many of them stripped down to acoustic arrangements. The Edge produced it, and it was released on 17 March 2023 as a companion to Bono's memoir Surrender, whose 40 chapters are named after U2 songs.
U2
