For a band so widely regarded as being at one with club culture, U2 very rarely treat us to dance versions of their singles, and their twenty year career has given us but a handful of classic dance mixes.

The most famous, the most uptempo, and the first (and only) to be released in its own right was Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne’s Perfecto Mix of ‘Even Better Than The Real Thing’, an electrifying stadium house mix that was also Oakenfold and Osborne’s finest hour. There was no initial intention to make the mix (and accompanying variations from Apollo 440) commercially available, but after massive pressure from club forces, led by BBC1FM’s Pete Tong, the dance mixes were released as a single late in 1992. They charted two places higher than the original ‘rock’ version, at number ten.

It wasn’t the first time Oakenfold had worked with U2. The DJ that’s currently leading the charge of the Stateside rave boom had been U2’s tour DJ and had earlier remixed ‘Mysterious Ways’. This more downtempo treatment was included on the original twelve inch of ‘MW’, which was withdrawn by Island, as the label did not want it to include the same tracks as the CD format. It also included more downtempo mixes of ‘MW’ by Stereo MCs and Massive Attack.