list of "100 Greatest Pop Songs", compiled by Rolling Stone and MTV music critics to rank songs released since The Beatles' breakthrough. In 2005, Blender ranked the song at number 268 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born". The following year, readers of Q voted "With or Without You" the 17th-greatest song in history. In 2012, Slant Magazine listed "With or Without You" as the 40th best single of the 1980s. Music television network VH1 ranked the song number 13 on the "100 Greatest Songs of the 80s" countdown in its series The Greatest. In 2004, Rolling Stone placed the song at number 131 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time"; the song was re-ranked to 132nd on the magazine's 2010 version of the list, and to 211th on the 2021 version. The song appeared as one of seven U2 songs in Toby Creswell's 2006 music reference book 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories, and Secrets. 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". In 2019, Rolling Stone ranked the song number seven on their list of the 50 greatest U2 songs, and in 2020, The Guardian ranked the song number four on their list of the 40 greatest U2 songs. U2 have included the song on two of their compilation albums, The Best of 1980–1990 and U218 Singles. In 2022, New York Magazine's Vulture.com ranked the song at number 12 in its list of all 234 U2 songs. In popular culture In the NBC sitcom Friends, the song is the theme song of the relationship between Ross Geller and Rachel Green. It is first played on The One with the List, wherein Ross apologizes to Rachel for the list he made in which he described the negative attributes of Rachel. Rachel then prevents the song from continuing after ringing up the radio station, informing them about what Ross did. The song is featured in the 1994 film Blown Away, as well as in the finale episode of The Americans. Track listing Personnel U2 Bono – vocals The Edge – guitar, backing vocals Adam Clayton – bass guitar Larry Mullen Jr. – drums Additional personnel Daniel Lanois – production Brian Eno – DX7 programming,