Was U2’s biggest hit of the 2000s actually a rip-off of A-ha?
When Gorillaz released their 2005 hit ‘Feel Good Inc’, some U2 fans were quick to note that the opening melody of the song bore a striking resemblance to their boys’ 1997 single ‘Staring at the Sun’.
Fortunately for Damon Albarn and his animated cohorts, most reasonable observers were willing to attribute the samey-ness to an innocent coincidence or subconscious reinterpretation. Albarn had earned the benefit of the doubt.
The same kindness should certainly be granted to Bono when it comes to a similar situation that arose in the year 2000, when U2’s surprise mega-hit, ‘Beautiful Day’, started reminding more than a few folks of another tune from 15 years prior.
It wasn’t a classic from U2’s own catalogue, either, but the 1985 single ‘The Sun Always Shines on TV’ by the Norwegian synth-pop band A-ha, one of the follow-ups to their decade-defining hit ‘Take On Me’. The opening portion of ‘The Sun Always Shines’, in particular, sounds like an undeniable blueprint for the chorus of ‘Beautiful Day’, as singer Morten Harket delivers the same first two words as Bono, “touch me,” in a similar pleading fashion over an identical chord progression.
While it hasn’t had the cross-generational impact of ‘Take On Me’, ‘The Sun Always Shines on TV’ wasn’t an obscure deep-cut by any means. The single went to number one in both the UK and Ireland in 1986, during a time when U2 were on a bit of a charting hiatus between The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree. Maybe Bono and the gang enjoyed the song at the time, or maybe they found it the bane of their existence. One thing’s for sure; it got into their ears and eventually worked its way back through their brains during the sessions for their “comeback” album of sorts, 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind.
“It was a borderline court-case situation,” A-ha songwriter and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen admitted in 2002. “Our publisher hired a musicologist to find out if much of our song’s melody was hidden in ‘Beautiful Day.’”
To be clear, though, that was an investigation spurred by a publishing office. The members of A-ha themselves never seemed to mind the “homage” that had taken place, with Furuholmen acknowledging that the roles easily could have been reversed back in the ‘80s.
“When A-ha started out, we stole as much as we could from U2,” he said. “Bono was a huge inspiration for us.”
Morten Harket was similarly diplomatic when discussing the ‘Beautiful Day’ semi-controversy. “Those things are natural,” he told the NME in 2022, saying that he was “fine” with the similarities between the two songs. “Whatever part in ‘Beautiful Day’ has a resemblance to ‘The Sun Always Shines…’, it doesn’t make ‘Beautiful Day’ a lesser song in any way or take away from the characteristics of what makes that song work.”
Bono has generally walked a careful line on the subject himself, acknowledging an influence but not going so far as to suggest that, you know, any money needed to change hands. The most direct statement he made on the issue, in fact, wasn’t any specific quote, but a specific performance during a U2 concert in Oslo in 2005. As the band played ‘Beautiful Day,’ they briefly incorporated elements from ‘The Sun Always Shines on TV,’ including some lyrics, which Bono delivered as an olive brach to any conflicted Norwegian fans. He was clearly aware of the DNA of the song, and decided to lean into it for one night only. Fair play.
