Studio album · No. 7
Zooropa Songwriting Credits by U2
Produced by Flood, Brian Eno, The Edge · Engineered by Robbie Adams, Flood, Willie Mannion, Rob Kirwan
Holds writing credit on 10 of 10 tracks
Authorship Breakdown 10 / 10 documented
Scored across the 10 tracks with documented writers, by whether U2 carries a lyricist or composer credit.
Share of the 10 tracks where a band member is credited, by role.
By the Numbers
The album credit line is the plain U2 split: music by the band, lyrics by Bono. Two tracks break it. The Edge wrote the lyrics to "Numb" alone and sings it, and he shares the "Dirty Day" lyric with Bono. Everything else on the record leaves the words to Bono and the music to all four members, which is why the composer list is identical across all ten tracks. The two outsiders who shaped the record most took no writing credit at all. Brian Eno co-produced every track and played synthesizers on six of them, plus loops, piano, harmonium, strings and backing vocals, and he still sits in the performer column rather than the writer column. Johnny Cash sings lead on "The Wanderer" without a credit for a single word of it. Bono cut his own vocal for that song and preferred Cash's take, so the closing track on a U2 album has a voice that belongs to nobody in the band.
U2 started Zooropa in Dublin in February 1993 during a six-month break between legs of the Zoo TV Tour, meaning to cut a short EP to promote the tour's next stretch. Bono pushed for a full album instead, and the band wrote and recorded it in about four months while flying between Dublin and tour dates to finish the mixes. Flood, Brian Eno and the Edge produced, building tracks from studio jams, soundcheck loops assembled by engineer Robbie Adams, and leftovers from the Achtung Baby sessions.