Achtung Baby, a gift from my first girlfriend - I think I was 14. First single who knows, I got into singles relatively later. But first bootleg Rock's Hottest Ticket - quite a boot.
My introduction to U2 is a great story (in my opinion). My Mom has always been a fan but I can never really remember much about U2 growing up. I first took notice of them during Batman Forever when I was eight (and obsessed with Batman ans that movie). I loved "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" and bought the soundtrack. Later I remember hearing "Staring At The Sun" and thinking "Oh! That's that band that sings the song from Batman, they must have a CD out now or something..." having no idea how huge a band they had become before ever being linked to the caped crusader.
My first album purchase from the U2 catalogue was All That You Can't Leave Behind. I bought it in the summer of 2002 just as "Elevation" had been released and I thought it was such a kick-ass song. I only sort of liked "Beautiful Day" and "Walk On" at the time but ended up falling in love with them and the rest of the CD that summer. My mother, brother and I would listen to that CD everywhere we went and I often think of that summer when I hear the songs off the CD. I think that's why this one is in my Top 3 U2 CDs.
My dad had the initial Island CD release of "The Joshua Tree", so that had always been laying around the house for me to listen to, but the first time I ever ventured out and bought my own U2 CD was "Rattle and Hum", as I'd heard bits of "Helter Skelter" and the gospel version of ISHFWILF over at a friend's house...his parents must have been playing the CD. After that, I bought the accompanying DVD, followed by the Vertigo//Chicago & Slane DVDs.
Since then, I obtained all of their albums either from local libraries or burned onto my iTunes from friends, and only recently realized that I should really buy all of them, hard copy, straight up. The only ones I have left to purchase are ironically enough ones that I've already owned on hard copy before. My R&H CD got lost through all the years of me toting it with me everywhere I went, and I'm convinced someone stole my NLOTH Deluxe CD out of my car, as it never left the old thing, EVER, and then one day it was mysteriously gone.
My first single was "The Fly", picked up at a used record store only a few months ago. The singles have been ridiculously hard for me to come by, and since I'm only 18 and don't yet have a credit card, buying online is significantly harder for me to pull off (nagging parents, etc)
For me on vinyl U.A.B.R.S and Pride double pack 7"single and c.d it was either Unforgettable Fire or War (which was a Canadian import with a big cardboard box). If i remember rightly U.F wasn't released on cd untill the following year. I suspect someone will correct me if im wrong.
My first album was Achtung. It hit right as I was 11 or 12 and started to really get into rock music. MTV certainly helped as well since I was instantly sold by a flipping leather clad Bono in the "Even Better Than The Real Thing" video.
The singles were a later development since I didn't really understand the idea of B-sides at first. I'm not sure which one it was, but it was definitely one of the Pop singles.
Well, I got into U2 lwhen I came into the living room and my parents were watching RH and was during With or Without You... at first sight... I was 7 or 8
Later my mom bought an unofficial Greatest Hits Collection (weird because it didnt have the radio stuff, it waskinda underground stuff such as stay, running to stand still bad) and i loved.
My parents gave me many discs after, ALTYCLB, HTDAAB, The Best ofs, etc... but the first one I bought was NLOTH... but I remmebre getting 2 singles by myself in 2005 at Barnes and Noble with a giftcard... they were vertigo and city of blinding lights, my only singles
First U2 song I owned? Downloaded Beautiful Day illegally. Heard it once on the radio and I knew I had to have it. Took over an hour and a half to download, because I had a modem internet connection.