Members of U2 consider it to be one of their favourite songs; guitarist The Edge named it the best track on the album, while lead singer Bono stated that it was one of their best creations.

While working in Hansa Ton Studios in Berlin, lead singer Bono and guitarist the Edge created the verse.

"[1] The Edge added "I was playing around on piano with some old-school chord progressions trying to summon up the spirit of Frank Sinatra.

As the recording sessions progressed, Wim Wenders approached the band and asked them for a song for his next film, Faraway, So Close!.

"[4] Two versions of the song were crafted; the first was released on Zooropa, and the second, almost two minutes longer and featuring "an edgier guitar and drum performance",[2] was included on the Faraway, So Close!

"[7] Hot Press editor Niall Stokes noted that the lyrics were ambiguous in whether they took place in reality or fantasy, which he likened to the overarching theme of the album.

[4] Author David Kootnikoff believed that "the pop melody conceals the lyric's dark theme about a victim of physical abuse who reasons her pain away with the line 'When he hurts you, you feel alive.

'"[3] Mark Brown of the Orange County Register described it as "the desperate tale of an abused woman with nowhere to go but back to her home."

He compared it to U2's 1987 song "Running to Stand Still", saying "That same sort of descriptive but distanced narrative is what made [it] so powerful.

[12] "I've Got You Under My Skin" is a cover of the 1936 Cole Porter song, recorded as a duet by Bono and Frank Sinatra.

[12] "Lemon (Bad Yard Club Edit)" was mixed by David Morales, who added his own percussion to the track.

[21] It debuted in concert on 1 December 1989 in Osaka, Japan, on the Lovetown Tour, almost four years before it was released, and has been performed infrequently since then.

[24] A second version, recorded with Nelson, was later released as a B-side on U2's 1997 single "If God Will Send His Angels".

was directed by German filmmaker Wim Wenders, produced by Debbie Mason, and edited by Jerry Chater.

It contains cameos of some of the actors who appeared in Faraway, So Close!, including Otto Sander, as well as Wenders's nephew.

"[26] Several shots depict the band members standing on the statue of Victoria, a monument at the top of the Berlin Victory Column; a model of the angel was created for those scenes.

"[26] Throughout the video U2 help the musicians play the track; drummer Larry Mullen Jr. is shown assisting in the beat, while The Edge tunes the guitar, which Wenders noted is "what you'd do if you were guardian angel to a lead guitarist.

"[26] The video alternates between the band playing, the members of U2 standing on Victoria, and scenes from both Wenders films.

returned to the live setting on 20 April 2001 in San Jose, California, on the first leg of the Elevation Tour, making it the first song from Zooropa to be played in North America.

Bono introduced the song by speaking about how divided the band was in Berlin at the start of the 1990s and how music helped them reconnect.

Music journalist Sam Richards rated the song four stars out of five, calling it "a twinkling '90s alt.

rock ballad - a cousin of Radiohead's "High and Dry" and Smashing Pumpkins' "1979" - that just about manages to keep a lid on its impulse to seek out the nearest clifftop.

"[39] Hot Press editor Niall Stokes said "the performance is full of languorous beauty, a gentle understated kind of emotion that seems at odds with the disorientation in the lyrics.

[40] Robert Levine of Spin called it one of their best songs, saying "They're still obsessed with transcendence, whether it's the kind you find on a Joshua Tree bluff or a "Miami" dance floor.

"[41] Writing for Time, Josh Tyrangiel compared it to U2's earlier hits "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "One", saying "'Stay (Faraway, So Close!)'...

"[44] The Orange County Register's Mark Brown noted "The casual guitar lines on 'Stay' infuse the song with a tension that perfectly suits the subject".

[45] Writing for The Dallas Morning News, Manuel Mendoza said it was "absolutely gorgeous, with Bono's husky moaning evoking a warm yearning".

[46] Alan Jones from Music Week stated that "slow-burning, intense and not overtly commercial, this is not a natural for the chart".

With satellite television you can go anywhere, sings Bono with great sadness as the song wells up from a tentative Velvets-type guitar figure into a big lonely forlorn ballad.