Is perhaps one of, if not the best song Prince has ever written. Sinead O'connor sang the crap out of it.
Check out this link to see/hear it..
http://video.download.com..._rslt_name
Is this not a beautiful song, and a beautiful version of it?

It is a Beautiful song. It's heart wrenching, and as much as people dis Sinead, she really did do a great job singing it. Her voice was beautiful.

*BUT* compared to Prince and Rosie.....Sinead's was like chicken broth, and their's was like some hearty beef stew.....more substance and feeling in their's.

luv4all7 said:

Uh, Sinead's version was much better than Rosie and P's crap. They tried too hard, Sinead's seemed to flow naturally!

i've said it before and i'll keep saying it every time this comes up

the Prince and Rosie version is absolutely crap. no feeling no soul,
just a lame half baked performance. why do people keep calling this
such a good soulful, emotional performance?? they sound like theyre
trying too hard and like the whole thing derails right after start.

same thing goes for The Family's version, which is ok but sounds so
dated and uneven. The vocals sound silly and it comes of more as an
attempt at being touching than it actually is so. it truly does sound
like a bad demo compared to Sinead's version.

now, Sinead's version, oh lord. it wasn't a number 1 all over the
world for nothing. now that one packs a punch, like a fist right n
the gut. her vocal delivery is absolutely phenomenal and the music
is great as well.

sure it's Prince's song, but Sinead and whomever produced it took
it to a whole nother level. far beyond the original Prince song.

It's one of the few times someone did one of his tunes without him
having a say in it's production at all. And then she took it and
ran with it. and that pissed him off, i'm sure it did.

Totally agree, Sinead's version of the song is the best by far. Full of genuine
emotion and feeling. Prince and Rosie's version is all icing and no substance
by comparison, it was too 'vegas-y' and superficial.

IstenSzek said:

I have one Rehearsal version of it (Nudity)
which is quite
without Rosie Gaines' annoying wailing
[Edited 11/4/05 16:24pm]

My favorite version of the song is by The Family and then Sinead's. Prince's sounds 2 much like (or reminds me of) Diamonds & Pearls, but it's cool 2. Maybe I like The Family's version more b'cuz it's coming from a man. I can feel St. Paul in jam/gem. U can feel Sinead's 2 but (again) she's a girl

.





Just a quick demographic poll:


How many posting on this thread are from Europe or at least outside the USA?










.
[Edited 11/4/05 16:43pm]

The song works better as a solo than a duet period.

Prince's verison was too have handed like they needed the bass to clue who's turn it was to sing. Sinead's was more like the story of a broken heart, a heart felt plead to get a lost love back.

Jestyr said:

I'm from Holland (AKA The Netherlands)
Why ?
[Edited 11/4/05 17:21pm]

I do not like Sinead O'Connor at all, not in the slightest bit, and I absolutely admit that her version is 10 times better than P's.

i always like that part about the flowers dying the garden when suga left..

Dewrede said:

I'm from , why????

Isten & Boris
i agree totally

I actually went to see her twice during that tour, and yea she does sing it very well. The lion and the cobra album is her best, as she really belts out the high notes on tracks like "troy" etc, I remember seeing an interview with her and she saids something along the lines of "the reason i chose that song to sing was because i was so strongly moved by the fact that so much emotion could be poured into a song by a man"

IstenSzek said:

i agree,i never liked the prince/rosie version.it was like "yeah,nothing compares :filenails: ...now wheres the cheetos?" but i dug the family version

luv4all7 said:

I like both versions too.
*Agreed* nothing compares to Prince, his abilities and the variety he brings to us with his collaborations.

P. version sucks.



Poland

Co-sign Isten.

To be honest i've never liked the Sinead version. I'd always switch over when it came on TV. Because I heard and loved The Family version first hearing a woman sing it with altered lyrics just didn't sound right. Like a female group covering The Beatles and singing "He Loves You". Know what i mean? It just sounded wrong to me. Hence I prefer The Family version and always will. Their versions got just as much emotion in it, if not more so.

There's no accounting for how people respond to songs. The Sinead version is just so much better arranged, sung with so much more passion than Paul ever did.
The The Family version is a hick compared to the sublime Sinead version, in my eyes. To each their own.

I think Prince's version on the ONA live.. is much
better than the one with Rosie.As good as Sinéad.
At first I didn't like Sinéad's version because I knew The Family
first,but she did a great job.

HamsterHuey said:

At the risk of sounding like a cheesemonger, i was pretty moved when she cried in the video, and to be visibly moved to tears over a song that prince wrote whilst singing it so beautifully is the ultimate complement to Prince. Tht video is still one of my favourites of all time, every time i see it i just want to grap her bald head and kiss her. I am anxious to know what Prince thought of that version.

As one of Sinead O Connor's countrymen I can report that the general consensus on Sinead in Ireland is that she is as mad as a brush. (From loudmouth aggressor to priest to rastafarian in a decade). However she sings like an angel, and her version of NC2U is without doubt the DEFINITIVE version. It stands alone as not only the DEFINITIVE version of this particular song, but as the DEFINITIVE evocation of heartache in song.

Dewrede said:

My contention is that most Americans don't get Sinead and most of the rest of the Earth inexplicably adore her. Even if they think she's nuts. She's a non-US phenomenon.

My personal thoughts on her version of "Nothing Compares..."? Absolute travesty. She totally yodels the chorus out ("Nuh-THING Compares 2 U") and ends the line with a horribly dissonent note that takes everything away from the soul of the material. The production of the track is completely overblown and plodding and shits all over the intimacy of the original recording by The Family. The original had such a creepy minimalism to it and it builds the vocals and strings up until the final 'descent' at the end. A true emotional arc. All of that is lost in her version.

And don't get me started on the video. What kind of grey blandness was that? And her close up face with the one tear coming down - how does that indicate real emotion? I don't get it. Her face shows no upset in the least, yet that one fake tear is supposed to make me feel her pain? I haven't experienced such an absence of emotion since Michael Jackson's weeping on "Be Not Always" from the Victory album.

So I'm just saying, I will never get the concept that Sinead O'Conner's version is better than The Family's and I've talked with so many people here in the US that agree, that it must be some kind of cultural thing. I have no other explanation for it.

And before a bunch of US orgers posts that I'm nuts and they love Sinead's version, I just want to say of course there are exceptions; I know some European's also hate the Sinead version as well.

Jestyr said:

I dont buy your arguement, although as i mentioned earlier i watched an interview when she was talking about that song she said in the video she was thinking of her mother, who i think is dead and thats what set her off.

Sorry, I love the Family's version. St. Paul's voice is beautiful.


M

I like hearing Prince sing it better, but I still like Sinead's version
for totally different reasons

scandalousalan said:

Yeah, but there's no right or wrong answer in music. What's good to one person is bad to another person.


M

Jestyr said:

I used to really like Sinead's version when i was young , now it doesn't do me much