Which Irish artist has had the most US number ones?
Ireland and America: two vastly different continents, cultures, and people, but with one shared musical focus.
Well, OK – that might be a bit of an exaggeration. There are lots of things that bind the two nations together, from sport and politics to various other aspects of culture. But music has always been the core of their shared identity, whether that’s in the artists that come across from either side of the Atlantic or the memories they evoke.
Naturally, there is a long line of Irish exports that have made waves across the States, from Sinéad O’Connor to more current acts like Hozier, who, most recently in 2024, broke a 34-year drought of Irish acts getting to number one across the pond. Of course, that’s quite the achievement, but he’s far from the only one.
Indeed, although it has been a process of small and incremental gains, one band in particular took flight from their Irish homeland and held America by the reins, in the form of their storming success and two number ones that came with it. It probably goes without saying that this was U2, the band who may have hailed from a small country but made entire continents feel at home.
Obviously, it was rather fitting that U2 dedicated their most seismic album to one of America’s most treasured national landmarks with The Joshua Tree. But whether it was the ode to the California desert or just the sheer power of the songs as a whole, it was a record that America took to their hearts – and the charts.
Which U2 songs gave them the most US number ones?
1987 was plainly a very good year for U2, not just in the fact that they released an album that changed the face of the music landscape, but in their ability to score a double whammy of number ones with their Stateside legion of fans. That came in the form of two of The Joshua Tree’s most cherished singles – ‘With or Without You’ and ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’.
With the former being the first of the band’s two shots at the top, it came with a certain sense of gratification. U2’s manager, Paul McGuinness, thought it was too unusual a song to be successful, but Virgin Prunes frontman Gavin Friday, who was Bono’s friend and also worked on the track, thought it would be a “certain number one”.
In this instance, the musician’s instinct overruled the manager’s, as ‘With or Without You’ went on to top the charts in the US for no less than three weeks, as well as various other countries. Of course, they were not the first Irish people to climb this tree, but they certainly were the most impactful of the lot.
With their two number ones in check, U2 still stand as the most successful Irish band to ever grace the shores of America, at least in a statistical sense. Of course, it’s true that chart acclaim can only take you so far, but in the case of U2, it can be proven that they truly changed the fabric of a country that was not their own through the power of their words – and odes to beloved national landmarks.
