The rock ballad[2][3] originated from a demo recorded in late 1985 that the group continued to work on throughout The Joshua Tree sessions.

Ostensibly a song about troubled love, the track's lyrics were inspired by Bono's conflicting feelings about the lives he led as a musician and domestic man.

In late 1985, U2 convened at a house that drummer Larry Mullen Jr. bought to review material the group had written during The Unforgettable Fire Tour.

During this time, a rough demo of "With or Without You" was written, with lead vocalist Bono composing the song's chord sequence.

[5] The band continued to work on the song at STS Studios, creating many permutations of the track, but not making any progress.

[5] The sessions for The Joshua Tree started in earnest in 1986, and U2 were recording at the Georgian mansion Danesmoate House in Dublin.

[7] Under the direction of co-producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, the Edge pursued more ambient guitar playing, Clayton turned up the volume on his bass, and Mullen experimented with an electronically enhanced drum kit.

[8] The song's fate was still in doubt when the Edge was sent a prototype of the Infinite Guitar by Canadian musician Michael Brook, with whom he had collaborated for the 1986 Captive soundtrack.

[9] The prototype included elaborate assembly instructions and as the Edge recollects, "one wrongly placed wire and you could get a nasty belt of electricity.

"[8] On subsequent tours, his guitar technician occasionally received electric shocks from the instrument when preparing it for performances.

While Lillywhite and engineer Mark Wallis were mixing it, Eno entered the room and told them that he wanted to change the introduction.

[13] Bono wrote the lyrics during his first night visiting the Côte d'Azur in 1986,[14] while struggling to reconcile his responsibilities as both a married man and a musician.

"[6] The song begins with a minimal drum beat of eighth notes played by Mullen, while a backing track—Eno's synthesiser—plays a "rippling" triplet arpeggio of the chord D major.

[9] A stanza begins in which Bono sings the song's title in a high, passionate voice as the drums get heavier.

[9] At 3:03, the song bursts out in emotion as Bono begins open-throated "Oh-oh-oh-ohh" vocals, which are double-tracked, and the rhythm increases to play sixteenth notes on the guitar, cymbals, and tambourine.

He explained that its understated nature was meant to resist the temptation to play an intricate guitar solo as an ending.

[16] The second time the figure is played, the signature guitar riff from earlier re-appears and the song regains some of its intensity.

"[19] In 1987, Bono explained that "And you give yourself away" lyric refers to how he sometimes feels exposed being in U2, and that his openness, both to the public and music press, can do damage to the group.

Author Niall Stokes interpreted the line as encompassing the theme of "surrendering the ego" to one's love and spiritual faith.

During these tours, two extensions to the song not present on the studio version were played: an extra verse with lyrics that typically read "We'll shine like stars in the summer night/We'll shine like stars in the winter light/One heart, one hope, one love" or modifications thereof,[32] which appears in the 1988 Rattle and Hum movie; and a snippet of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (along with the "shine like stars" lyrics) which can be heard in the live album and concert film Live from Paris.

Since the PopMart Tour, it has been more common for Bono to repeat the "Ohh" at the climax of the song, with the "shine like stars" verse sung rarely.

[34] The song regularly closed out the main set on the Innocence + Experience Tour, again occasionally with the "shine like stars" coda.

It was also performed at all 40 shows of their 2023–2024 residency U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere in the Las Vegas Valley.

Rolling Stone called it an "inventively arranged tune... that builds from a soothing beginning to a resounding climax".

[35] Bill Graham of Hot Press praised the song, suggesting it may be Bono's "most controlled vocal, building from an almost conversational first verse over a bare rhythm section to a soul-baring confession".

[36] The Sunday Independent suggested that the song was proof the band could be commercially accessible, yet not resort to rock clichés.

[38] Mike DeGagne of AllMusic praised the song for Eno's and Lanois' "gleaming" production work, Bono's vocals and "poetic deftness", and for The Edge's "astute but assertive" guitar playing.

DeGagne described Bono's singing as "unleashing all his vocal power, moving from a soft, subtle intro and middle to an explosive burst of unyielding energy toward the end".

He made religious comparisons to the musical arrangement, saying the "discerning air sounds almost church-like as it slowly unravels".

[19] Creswell said the song struck a perfect balance between the "vigour and spit and attitude" of the group's teenage years and their new-found appreciation for the "power of understatement".