Lead vocalist Bono wrote the lyrics in response to the notion that it is possible to identify a person's religion and income based on the street on which they lived, particularly in Belfast.

The music for "Where the Streets Have No Name" originated from a demo that guitarist The Edge composed the night before U2 resumed The Joshua Tree sessions.

Realising that the album sessions were approaching the end and that the band were short on exceptional live songs, he wanted to "conjure up the ultimate U2 live-song", so he imagined what he would like to hear at a future U2 show if he were a fan.

"[3] Co-producer Brian Eno estimates that half of the album sessions were spent trying to record a suitable version of "Where the Streets Have No Name".

[4] The band worked on a single take for weeks, but as Eno explained, that particular version had a lot of problems with it and the group continued trying to fix it up.

The lyrics were inspired by a story that Bono heard about Belfast, Northern Ireland, where a person's religion and income were evident by the street on which they lived.

To me, that's the way a great rock 'n' roll concert should be: a place where everyone comes together... Maybe that's the dream of all art: to break down the barriers and the divisions between people and touch upon the things that matter the most to us all.

Journalist Michael Campbell believed the lyrics send "a message of hope" and wish for a "world that is not divided by class, wealth, race, or any other arbitrary criterion".

I used to think it was Belfast..."[16] Journalist Niall Stokes believes the title was influenced by Bono's and his wife Ali's visit to Ethiopia as volunteer aid-workers.

Bono has expressed mixed opinions about the open-ended lyrics: "I can look at it now and recognize that [the song] has one of the most banal couplets in the history of pop music.

[19] Originally, the third single from The Joshua Tree was meant to be the song "Red Hill Mining Town", but "Where the Streets Have No Name" was released instead, in August 1987.

[26] The video begins with an aerial shot of a block in Los Angeles, and clips of radio broadcasts are heard with DJs stating that U2 is planning on performing a concert downtown and expecting crowds of 30,000 people.

The band attracted over 1,000 people during the video's filming, which took place on the rooftop of a liquor store in Downtown Los Angeles on 27 March 1987.

[28] Prior to filming, a week was spent reinforcing the roof of the liquor store to ensure that it would not collapse if it were to be intruded by a group of fans.

[31] According to Avis, the events depicted in the video show what actually happened that day "almost in real time", and that "getting busted was an integral part of the plan.

In 1985, Bono participated in Steven Van Zandt's anti-apartheid Sun City project and spent time with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones.

When Richards and Jagger played blues, Bono was embarrassed by his lack of familiarity with the genre, as most of U2's musical knowledge began with punk rock in their youth in the mid-1970s.

[41] It was re-recorded by U2 for the "Where the Streets Have No Name" single while the band returned to Dublin in May 1987 during a break between the first and second legs of The Joshua Tree Tour.

[42] The song was described by Musician as "tough and raw, with Bono in husky and confident voice, underpinned by a sinuous bass line, and with The Edge demonstrating his newfound prowess in blues-based guitar".

[37] "Silver and Gold" was played live on The Joshua Tree Tour several times, one performance of which was featured on the band's 1988 album and rockumentary, Rattle and Hum.

Hot Press editor Niall Stokes stated that this track, along with "Race Against Time", is "an indicator of what U2 might have made instead of The Joshua Tree.

[49] The Washington Post said the track is "a bit oblique lyrically, but the implications are clear in Bono's resolute delivery, Dave (the Edge) Evan's quavering guitar, Adam Clayton's cathedral bass and Larry Mullen's rolling thunder drums".

The publication praised Bono's impassioned singing and The Edge's guitar playing, which transformed the instrument into "something more than an endlessly abused piece of wood".

[52] The Rocket wrote that the song builds a "wall of sound" that Bono's vocals cut through with a "wail of desperation, as the lyrics agonize the need for personal spirituality".

[54] The service's Steve Huey, in a review of the song, praised its "insistent, propulsive rhythmic drive and anthemic chorus", qualities he singled out for making it a fan favorite.

[66] Concerts from this tour were elaborate multimedia spectacles that Bono performed as a variety of characters, but for the end of the main set, the group reverted to playing classics, including "Where the Streets Have No Name", straight.

Near the end of the song, peace doves were shown on the screen and bright beams of light flanking the set's golden arch were projected upwards.

[82] For the 2005-2006 Vertigo Tour, the group originally considered dropping the song from their set lists, but Mullen and Clayton successfully argued against this.

[15] All 131 of the Vertigo Tour concerts featured a performance of the song,[83] which were accompanied by the stage's LED video curtains displaying African flags.

[112] This song was featured in Universal's 2021 computer animated film Sing 2, for which Bono voiced Clay Calloway, one of the main characters.