The Best of 1990–2000


The Best of 1990–2000 is the second greatest hits album by Irish rock band U2. It was released on 5 November 2002 through Island Records and Interscope Records. The follow-up to The [Best of 1980–1990], it was issued as both a single-disc CD compilation and as a multi-disc compilation called The Best of 1990–2000 & B-Sides, which included a second disc of 14 B-sides released between 1990 and 2000 and a bonus DVD. A video album of the same name was later released in December 2002.
The Best of 1990–2000 contained two newly recorded tracks: "Electrical Storm" and "The Hands That Built America"; the former was released as a single, while the latter was released on the soundtrack to Gangs of New York. The compilation also includes "new mixes" of several songs, as well the tracks "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" and "Miss Sarajevo".
The album charted at number one in 13 countries and was the twelfth-best-selling album of 2002, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

Track listing

"Electrical Storm" was released as a single in promotion of the album. "Gone", "Discothèque", "Staring at the Sun", and "Numb" were remixed by Mike Hedges for the compilation. "Mysterious Ways" is identical to the album version with the exception of a single lyric. "Miss Sarajevo", co-written by Brian Eno, was originally included on the album Original Soundtracks 1, which was released by the band under the alias "Passengers".

Limited Edition B-sides Disc

"North and South of the River" was written with Christy Moore. "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" was written by Lennon–McCartney. "Your Blue Room" was written with Brian Eno.
"The History Mix" is a video montage anthologizing the band's nineties albums and tours. It includes snippets of interviews, promotional videos, and so forth. The live version of "Please" is from the Helsinki Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland, recorded on 9 August 1997 and directed by Maurice Linnane.

Charts

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Australian Albums 24
Austrian Albums 54
Belgian Albums 34
Belgian Albums 73
Dutch Albums 36
German Albums 93
New Zealand Albums 35
UK Albums
& B-Sides		160

Video

The Best of 1990–2000 was also released as a video compilation, featuring music videos from the songs on the album. The DVD version of the video featured one to two videos for each song on the album, plus seven bonus videos, as well as directors' commentaries, and three mini-documentaries. The VHS version of the video featured simply one video for the 16 songs from the album.
On all versions however, there is no video for "The First Time", as one was never made or rather released. In its place was put the video of "The Fly", which itself was on certain versions of the album. The DVD case had two disc slots, one for the main videos, the other for the "History Mix" DVD from the "A and B sides" version of the album. In its absence, a CD/DVD-shaped paper disc is used as a placeholder.

Track listing

Music and words by U2, except where otherwise noted.
  1. "Even Better Than the Real Thing"
  2. *Kevin Godley video with commentary
  3. *Ritchie Smyth remix video
  4. "Mysterious Ways"
  5. *Stéphane Sednaoui video with commentary
  6. "Beautiful Day"
  7. *Jonas Åkerlund video with commentary
  8. "Electrical Storm"
  9. *Anton Corbijn video with commentary
  10. *U2 Sur Mer documentary
  11. "One"
  12. *Anton Corbijn video with commentary
  13. *Phil Joanou video with commentary
  14. *A Story of One documentary
  15. "Miss Sarajevo"
  16. *Maurice Linnane video and commentary
  17. *Missing Sarajevo documentary
  18. "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)"
  19. *Wim Wenders video and commentary
  20. "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of"
  21. *Joseph Kahn video with commentary
  22. *Kevin Godley video with commentary
  23. "Gone"
  24. *David Mallet video
  25. "Until the End of the World"
  26. *Kevin Godley video
  27. "The Hands That Built America"
  28. *Maurice Linnane studio version video
  29. "Discothèque"
  30. *Stéphane Sednaoui video with commentary
  31. "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me"
  32. *Godley/Linanne video with commentary
  33. "Staring at the Sun"
  34. *Jake Scott video with commentary
  35. *Morleigh Steinberg video
  36. "Numb"
  37. *Kevin Godley video with commentary
  38. *Emergency Broadcast Network remix video
  39. "The Fly"
  40. *Smith/Klein remix video with commentary

Bonus videos

  1. "Please"
  2. *Anton Corbijn video with commentary
  3. "If God Will Send His Angels"
  4. *Phil Joanou video with commentary
  5. "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses"
  6. *Phil Joanou video with commentary
  7. "Lemon"
  8. *Mark Neale video with commentary
  9. "Last Night on Earth"
  10. *Ritchie Smyth video with commentary
  11. "Mofo"
  12. *Maurice Linnane remix video
  13. "The Ground Beneath Her Feet"
  14. *Wim Wenders video with commentary
  • An "easter egg" also features. From the main menu on the DVD, if "One" is clicked, the main screen for "One" will appear. Once on this screen, the digit '1' could be clicked on the remote control three times. If clicked three times, a three-minute video of a fish tank, with fish swimming in it, appears. After some time, some Trabants will appear in the video as fishes, which swim from one end of the screen to the other.
All tracks were remastered for these releases.

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes.