U2 Book Letterman Residency For "No Line on the Horizon" Release Week

David Letterman's reward for soldiering through that disastrous Joaquin Phoenix interview last night: U2 will perform five consecutive nights on The Late Show, beginning on Monday, March 2nd, the official U2 Website announced today. Coincidentally, U2's new album No Line on the Horizon hits shelves and digital music services on March 3rd. Imagine that odds of that, releasing a new album and playing a residency on the Letterman show in the same week.

The performances mark the first time ever an artist has played Letterman's show for five consecutive nights. As we mentioned this morning, the White Stripes did a similar feat in 2003, performing a week-long residency on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

In other U2 news, and this may be just our little conspiracy theory, but there's a possibility that U2 have changed the cover art for No Line on the Horizon. The original image featured an oceanic photograph by Hiroshi Sugimoto with an equal sign superimposed on top of it. However, the revolving photograph at the front door of U2.com reveals the same image, without the equal sign. Plus, some digital music outlets are featuring the album artwork without the equal sign as well. With our without it, the album cover is still starkly striking, even if it's not all together original. There are five different editions of No Line being released, so maybe this other cover will appear on a deluxe version.

With the new LP less than three weeks away, make sure you check out our track-by-track preview of No Line on the Horizon and exclusive in-the-studio story on the making of the album:

• Inside U2's Bold New Horizon

• U2 Break Down No Line on the Horizon

Related Stories:

• Bono's Search for a "Spiritual Mecca": Daniel Lanois on U2's "No Line on the Horizon"
• U2's "Get On Your Boots" Video Returns as "Horizon" Previews Disappear

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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