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"Even Better Than the Real Thing" is the second song on U2's 1991 album Achtung Baby. It was released as the album's fourth single on 7 June 1992.
"Even Better Than the Real Thing" originated from a chorus guitar riff that The Edge composed in Los Angeles during the Rattle and Hum sessions. A demo of the song, called "The Real Thing", was recorded at STS Studios during the same session in which "Desire" was recorded. The band remarked that the song's guitar riff reminded them of The Rolling Stones, but that it sounded "deeply traditional". Consequently, it was shelved until the Achtung Baby recording sessions, when the band took the multitrack recording of the demo to Hansa Studios in Berlin in late 1990. The band made little progress on the demo there, as the Berlin sessions were plagued by conflict and difficulty in completing songs.
The song peaked at #12 becoming one of the few U2 singles that failed to reach the top 10 in the UK Singles Chart. It made #8 on the Dutch Top 40. A few months after its initial release DJ Paul Oakenfold remix charted better than the original, reaching No. 8. In the United States, the single was a hit on rock radio. It reached #32 on the Billboard Hot 100, #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and #5 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. It also reached #27 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart and #35 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart.
The song's music video won an MTV Video Music Award in 1992 for Best Special Effects for its unique 360-degree camera rollover rig, designed and built by Simon Tayler of Artem in London specifically for the video.
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