"Two Hearts Beat as One" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the seventh track on their 1983 album, '' War'', and was released as its second single in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia on 21 March 1983.

History

The

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

was directed by Meiert Avis and was filmed outside the Basilica of Sacré Coeur de Montmartre in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in March 1983. It portrays the band performing the song, intercut with scenes of an acrobat and other scenes featuring Peter Rowen (the boy who appears on the album cover). The Parisian church is dedicated to the

Sacred Heart of Jesus The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...

. Unlike the other videos from the album, it has never been included on any of the band's video compilations. "Two Hearts Beat as One" was released as the album's second single in the US, UK and Australia, as opposed to " Sunday Bloody Sunday", which was released only in the mainland of Europe. Both singles were released in Japan. It features a bassline by Adam Clayton which is played at the beginning of the song. The isolated bassline is the main rhythm on Martin Solveig's 2003 Exotic Disco mix of " Madan", a song originally by Salif Keita. "Two Hearts Beat as One" was one of forty songs chosen by the Edge and re-recorded by the band for the 2023 album '' Songs of Surrender''.

Reception

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'' praised the intensity produced by the "pounding bass figures, snap drumming and Bono’s voice."

Live performances

The song was first played in concert on 26 February 1983, at the first show of the War Tour and was played at almost all concerts on that tour. On the second leg of the War Tour, "Two Hearts Beat as One" began to follow "Surrender" and the two songs segued together. This transition survived to the Unforgettable Fire Tour. However, on the third leg of the Unforgettable Fire Tour, "Two Hearts Beat as One" was separated from "Surrender" and it was played less frequently. Its last tour appearance on 29 April 1985, in Atlanta. It made a further subsequent appearance when it was performed as part of the encore at a Lovetown Tour concert on 27 December 1989, in the Point Depot,

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. The song was not played live again for 25 years until a New York concert during the Innocence + Experience Tour of 2015. It was also performed at their

Sphere A sphere (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ) is a surface (mathematics), surface analogous to the circle, a curve. In solid geometry, a sphere is the Locus (mathematics), set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three ...

residence U2:UV ''Achtung Baby'' Live in 2023. A live performance of the song at Red Rocks Amphitheatre appears on the DVD release of the concert film '' Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky''.

Formats and track listings

Charts

References