In October 1976, a group of five young Irishman formed a band that would go on to make its mark on rock and roll forever. Larry Mullen Jr, Dik and Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Paul Hewson called their group Feedback. Later, of course, the group would be paired down to four (Dik departed) and its name would change to U2.

U2 started to gain notice after the first, by the influential Bill Graham, was published in Hot Press April 28, 1978. They would release their first single, U2-3, in 1979 and would follow with four more before releasing their first full album, "Boy", through Island Records in 1980. "Boy" featured the classic, "I Will Follow" and won raves from an audience that had little idea of what was to come from this talented bunch.

Their second album, "October", hit in 1981, featuring the great "Gloria", but U2 would make its first real international impact with their 3rd record, "War", released in 1983. Powered by one of the all-time great anthems in all of rock music, "Sunday Bloody Sunday", and featuring two other classic tunes -- "New Year's Day" and "Two Hearts Beat As One" -- this album put U2 on the globe and marked them as one of the world's best bands.

This success would be followed up on with the fantastic live album "Under A Blood Red Sky", featuring a killer performance of "Sunday" and then the group's fourth album, "The Unforgettable Fire." The best son on this album, "Pride (In The Name Of Love)" about great martyrs Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi and John Kennedy has become one of the classic anthems in rock history. But this was all just a prelude to what was to come.

In 1987, U2 would make history with the incredible and immensely popular album "The Joshua Tree." On the power of hit after hit -- "Where The Streets Have No Name", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", "With Or Without You" -- "The Joshua Tree" would become one of the most popular records of all-time. Extremely deep, there's not one bad track on the album. "Rattle And Hum", a live album featuring performances from "The Joshua Tree" tour, would also go on to sell a ton of records and is a great album in it own right (featuring the hit "Desire").

With U2 now megastars, the world would be made wait until 1991 for their next studio album. On the heels of the ultra-popular "Joshua Tree", almost anything would be a disappointment. But U2 threw the world a curveball and put together a fresh, new sound on "Achtung Baby." While it was not as critically well-regarded, the record featured as many hit songs as its predecessor, including "One", "Even Better Than The Real Thing", "Until The End Of The World", "So Cruel", "Whose Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses", "Mysterious Ways" and "Ultraviolet." As deep as "The Joshua Tree" and in some opinions even better, U2 successfully followed up one of the all-time great records with another all-time great.

U2 would come back down to Earth with 1993's "Zootopia", a solid record but nothing like the previous two classics. 1997's "Pop" was solid but less than stellar as well, and it would not be until the year 2000 and the tune "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" from the Million Dollar Hotel movie soundtrack that the world would be exposed to the brilliant calibur of work that marked U2's history.

This was no mirage, no flash in the pan for a once-great band -- soon followed "All That You Can't Leave Behind", an amazing album with four hit songs ("Beautiful Day", "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of", "Elevation" and "Walk On"). U2 is back on top of the world and has re-established themselves as the best band in rock today -- not just one of the best of all-time.

--Chris Kivlehan