"'40' (How Long)"
Single by U2
from the album War
Released	August 1983
Format	Vinyl (7")
Genre	Rock
Length	2 m 53 s
Label	Island
Producer(s)	Steve Lillywhite
Chart positions
U2 singles chronology
Sunday Bloody Sunday (1983)	"40" (Germany only) (1983)	Pride (In The Name Of Love) (1984)

"40", the closing track from U2's War album, was the (Germany-only) fourth single release from that album. (Note the song's title uses double quotation marks itself.) Image File history File links U2_40. ... In music, a single is a short (usually ten minutes or less*) record, usually featuring one or two tracks as A-side, often accompanied by several B-sides, usually remixes or other songs. ... U2 is an Irish rock band featuring Bono (Paul David Hewson) on vocals, guitar and harmonica, The Edge (David Howell Evans) on guitar, keyboards and vocals, Adam Clayton on bass, and Larry Mullen, Jr. ... War is a 1983 album from U2 (see 1983 in music), produced by Steve Lillywhite. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A gramophone record, (also phonograph record - often simply record) is an analog sound recording medium: a flat disc rotating at a constant angular velocity, with inscribed spiral grooves in which a stylus or needle rides. ... A music genre is a category (or genre) of pieces of music that share a certain style or basic musical language (van der Merwe 1989, p. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ... A minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour and to 60 seconds. ... Look up second in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A record label is a brand created by companies that specialize in producing, manufacturing, distributing and promoting audio and sometimes video recordings (especially music videos), on various formats including compact discs, LPs, DVD-Audio, SACDs, and cassettes. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the performers, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... Steve Lillywhite (born in 1955) is a well-known British music producer. ... Top 40 is a radio format based on frequent repetition of songs from a constantly-updated list of the forty best-selling singles. ... U2 is an Irish rock band featuring Bono (Paul David Hewson) on vocals, guitar and harmonica, The Edge (David Howell Evans) on guitar, keyboards and vocals, Adam Clayton on bass, and Larry Mullen, Jr. ... Sunday Bloody Sunday is a song by U2 in the album War. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pride (In the Name of Love) was the first single lifted from the Unforgettable Fire album. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... U2 is an Irish rock band featuring Bono (Paul David Hewson) on vocals, guitar and harmonica, The Edge (David Howell Evans) on guitar, keyboards and vocals, Adam Clayton on bass, and Larry Mullen, Jr. ... War is a 1983 album from U2 (see 1983 in music), produced by Steve Lillywhite. ...

Reportedly, this song was recorded right at the end of the recording sessions for War. Bassist Adam Clayton had already left the studio, and the three remaining band members decided they didn't have a good song to end the album, so they frantically recorded "40", with Bono stealing lyrics from The Bible's Psalms 40 and 6 and The Edge playing both electric and bass guitar. Bono would later state before a live performance on 29 April 1987, that "We spent ten minutes writing this song, ten minutes recording it, ten minutes mixing it, ten minutes playing it back, and that's got nothing to do with why it's called '40'." Adam Clayton Charles Adam Clayton (born March 13, 1960 in Chinnor, Oxford, England), is the bass player for the Irish rock band, U2. ... Bono at a press conference for the film Million Dollar Hotel, 2000 Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), nicknamed Bono Vox, stage name Bono, is the lead singer of the Irish rock band, U2. ... The Bible (From Greek βιβλια—biblia, meaning books, which in turn is derived from βυβλος—byblos meaning papyrus, from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported papyrus) is the sacred scripture of Christianity. ... Psalms (Tehilim תהילים, in Hebrew) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh. ... The Edge Dave Howell Evans (born August 8, 1961, Barking, East London, England) stage name The Edge, is the lead guitarist of the Irish rock band U2. ... April 29 is the 119th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (120th in leap years). ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

"40" debuted live on 26 February 1983 in Dundee as the final song of the show, and closed almost every single concert on 1983's War Tour. It became very popular as a concert closer, and between its debut and 10 January 1990, roughly only twenty full tour concerts were not closed by "40". During live performances, Adam Clayton and The Edge would swap instruments so that Adam played guitar and Edge played bass, and the band members would progressively leave stage, with Bono the first to depart, then Clayton, then Edge, then drummer Larry Mullen left as the final band member on stage, playing the drum beat as the crowd chanted the refrain of "How long ... To sing this song?" Sometimes, the crowd's reaction would be so powerful that other band members would return to continue the song, and some performances of "40" became extremely long. The longest known performance was nearly seventeen minutes long, roughly six times longer than the studio recording. Other times, clusters of audience members would continue the singing into the stairwells and out onto the streets outside the venue. February 26 is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... January 10 is the 10th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Larry Mullen Jr. ...

Between January 1990 and March 2005, full performances of "40" were extremely rare, though on 2001's Elevation Tour, it was regularly snippeted at the end of "Bad" before the song segued into "Where the Streets Have No Name". "40" made a return to the regular setlist in March 2005 on the Vertigo Tour and has closed many shows in 2005. It is one of the fifteen most frequently performed songs by U2. The rock band U2s Elevation Tour took place in 2001 in support of their album All That You Cant Leave Behind. ... Where the Streets Have No Name is the introductory song to U2s 1987 hit The Joshua Tree and has become one of the bands biggest hits. ... The rock band U2s Vertigo Tour began in 2005 in support of their album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. ...

Track Listing

Version 1

1. "40" (Album Version) (2:53)
2. "Two Hearts Beat As One" (Album Version) (4:02)

This is the only known release. Oddly enough, the single was titled "40 (How Long)" for this release. Two Hearts Beat As One was the second single release by U2 from their War album. ...

External link

• 40's performance history at U2-Vertigo-Tour.com--Lists all concerts at which "40" is known to have been performed.