Despite being one of the best songs to be written after a loved one, 'Nothing Compares 2 U' was about to remain a piece unknown, and a clever manager would change the fate of both the song and her artist.
The famous singer Prince was known to be very creative and had periods when he wrote a song almost every day. He disappeared for an hour during rehearsals in Minnesota in 1984 and appeared in his notebook with the lyrics to a new song. The artist recorded the song on the same day, played the instruments himself, and St.Paul and Susanna Melvoin from The Family group accompanied him on vocals. Prince named the song "Nothing Compares 2 U". Previously, he had songs such as "I Would Die 4 U", and "If I love U 2 Nite", which he called in this style.
An extraordinary performer with a wide vocal range, able to play many instruments, write his own songs and easily perform falsetto even at very high notes, Prince was also famous for giving some of his songs to bands and artists such as The Bangles, Chaka Khan and Cyndi Lauper. Although he recorded "Nothing Compares 2 U", he did not include it in his album and gave the song to his own project, The Family. The band's lead singer, Paul Peterson, was asked to perform the piece in Prince's style. The song's lyrics expressed deep feelings of longing from the perspective of an abandoned person, and he was thinking of his girlfriend, Julie, who broke his heart in high school in order to convey the same emotion while interpreting the song. The band released the song on their single album under their own name in 1985, but the album was not very successful.
As with many of his songs, Prince did not clearly reveal his true inspiration for this song. The artist's sound engineer Susan Rogers said that contrary to popular belief, the inspiration for the song might not be a lost lover, but her housekeeper Sandy Scipioni, who had to leave Prince to be with her family when her father died: She would make sure that he had the drinks he liked in his cupboard, and that all his underwear and clothes were kept clean and well-groomed. She could have been his inspiration.”
'It's all about emotions'
Despite being one of the best songs to be written after a loved one, "Nothing Compares 2 U" was about to remain an unknown track on The Family's album, but a smart manager would change the fate of both the song and its artist.
The idea to cover this special song of Prince came to mind from Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor's manager, Fachtna O'Kelley, who released her first album in 1987 and managed to become one of the Grammy nominees by getting a gold record. Sinéad O'Connor, who learned that O'Kelley's partner, Chris Hill, could not hold back the tears while listening to the demo recording on tape, "Was I that bad?" she joked.
Sinéad O'Connor included the track on her second album "I Do Not Want What I Haven't God" in 1989, and the song's single was released in January 1990. The director of the music video for the song, John Maybury, had taken many shots around Paris, but in the end, he preferred a very simple cut with only O'Connor's face visible. O'Connor's short-haired appearance came as a surprise to listeners who saw her up close for the first time.
Sinéad O'Connor seemed to have changed the molecular structure of the song and her interpretation attracted the attention of the whole world. One of the reasons for this was the emotionality and sincerity in her performance. In an interview with BBC Radio 6, she said: “It was all about the emotions, not the notes. I can't sing any song that I can't emotionally identify with myself.” While "Nothing Compares 2 U" was known to many as the ballad of lovers breaking up, O'Connor's version was more influenced by another relationship. In an interview with the BBC, the artist explained the tears that fell from her eyes while interpreting the song.
“There was a singing technique called 'Bel Canto' that I worked with before. You need to find an emotional event that affects you and that you can use for yourself. It's like the Stanislavsky acting method. It was always the same thing for me and it worked. I always think of my mother. My mother died when I was 17, and it wasn't long before I shot this video."
All the flowers that you planted mama
In the backyard
All died when you went away
I know that living with you baby was sometimes hard
But I'm willing to give it another try
Nothing compares
Nothing compares to you
While saying these words, a tear fell from Sinéad O'Connor's eyes, and these candid images increased the video's worldwide audience.
Prince's sound engineer Susan Rogers said the artist didn't like O'Connor's rendition but said it was commonplace because no singer liked covers of his songs unless Prince himself asked for it.
Sinéad O'Connor, in her memoirs published under the name "Rememberings" in 2021, states that after the song became famous, Prince invited him to his Hollywood mansion and verbally abused him, after which he had to leave on foot at five in the morning, Prince He said that he came after him with his car. In a statement to the New York Times, she stated that what happened between her and Prince did not change her feelings about "Nothing Compares 2 U" and said, "I think this is my song".
Sinéad O'Connor's rendition of "Nothing Compares 2 U" ranked 184th on Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.
Prince's first guitar-heavy, rock-style studio recording in 1984 was hidden in the artist's vault, along with many unreleased songs and albums, and was released by his heirs in 2018, two years after his death.
After the sudden death of Prince on April 21, 2016, Prince's fans paid tribute to the artist using the name of this famous song on social media. The night he died, crowds gathered in front of New York's Apollo theater for an impromptu party. On the illuminated sign of the theater, "Nothing Compares 2 U" was written in memory of the "Beautiful One".