Story of the Song: Nothing Compares 2 U, Sinead o'Connor (1990)By Robert Webb


Friday, 6 March 2009

Not many careers have been launched with a tear. Sinead O'Connor shot to No 1 when her video for "Nothing Compares 2 U" first aired on MTV at the dawn of the Nineties.


As O'Connor sang, face to camera, her eyes welled, especially around the lines: "All the flowers that you planted, Mama in the back yard / All died when you went away". The words had particular resonance for O'Connor, who as a child had suffered serious physical abuse at the hands of her mother. "It was an emotional thing for me," said O'Connor. "My mother was an extremely violent person.... Someone who wasn't well." O'Connor's mother was killed in a car accident in the mid Eighties. By 1990, the abuse was still difficult for O'Connor to come to terms with. The video for "Nothing Compares 2 U" was something of a cathartic experience for the Irish singer.

In tears of defiance, O'Connor converted one of Prince's half-forgotten cast-offs into the decade's first memorable chart topper. The song first appeared in 1985, as a track on The Family, the eponymous debut by a Paisley Park collective formed from the remnants of an earlier Prince band called The Time. Central to The Family was Prince's girlfriend of the moment, Susannah Melvoin. With her in mind, the Purple One penned a love song, "Nothing Compares 2 U". Complete with a cathedral-like synthesiser and a piercing, Eighties-standard saxophone break, the track was recorded in the summer of 1984. The Family lacked Prince's full commitment, however – the singer viewing the side project largely as a way of keeping Melvoin by his side. When the album finally appeared the following year, Prince had moved on to other things and no one took much notice of its sleeping giant. Five years on, O'Connor gained a Grammy for her classic cover – recorded, with the help of the producer Nellee Hooper, for her album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got. It was an opportunity to meet the song's composer. She was duly invited to Prince's house in Los Angeles where, according to O'Connor, he berated her for using four-letter words in interviews. She claimed that she swore at him and that he reacted badly to this. "I ended up having to escape.... All I could do was spit. I spat on him quite a bit."
Prince remained silent about the incident but, spurred by O'Connor's global hit with his song, included it in his live act, even releasing a live duet with Rosie Gaines, recorded on the Diamonds and Pearls tour in the early Nineties. This version surpasses the original 1984 recording and, arguably, even O'Connor's cover. Prince had warmed to the song after letting it languish in his back catalogue for several years, but O'Connor found it a difficult song to revisit: "I love it and I love singing it, but I'm afraid to sing it," she admitted
http://www.independent.co...38221.html
[Edited 3/6/09 5:51am]

Damn! Sounds like P got rough with her if she had to spit on him repeatedly to escape! I wonder why she's scared tho?

Prince mentioned "Nothing Compares 2 U" at one of the ONA soundchecks. Said something like, the release of the song was around the time that things turned sour with WB's. They were telling him what to do with his music?? He seemed pretty pissed off about the song.

I was at a few Sinead O'conner gigs back in the day, as i love alot of her songs, particularly off the "Lion & the cobra" album. She sang nctu every gig but one time i remember her sayin something like "This is a song written by a short arse" in her strong Irish accent. I am sure i saw her in a past interview praising the lyrics, and saying she had never heard such a sincere outpour of emotion from a man ever.

I'd take what Sinead O'Connor has to say with an extremely large pinch of salt. This is the woman who, I believe, set up her own church and made herself a bishop. I was on a trip during a holiday in Dublin and I was speaking to the guide about different Irish artists, and her name came up. His resposne was to say she was very well known in her local area as being slightly strange, but they left her to it. Also doesn't Prince specifically say something about women who accused him of violence as being liars in "Days of Wild"

Oh boo-hoo.

I loved her version of it.. however I do think Sinead has some issues.

I can't believe Prince has a issue with swearing ... considering he does it in his songs...

Old news....

she shouldnt be afraid. Prince is just a little, little man.
[Edited 3/7/09 3:19am]

i think the prince and rosie gaines version off the hits is weak.....certainly doesnt surpass either Sineads version, nor the original. For me Prince's best version of the song was how he performed it on the Nude tour. Stripped back musically, and close to the arrangement of O'Connors.