Sinéad O’Connor’s rendition of “Nothing Compares 2 U” is more than just a song; it’s an emotional earthquake. The raw vulnerability and searing pain in her voice resonated with millions, cementing it as an anthem of heartbreak and longing. But while indelibly linked to O’Connor, the question often arises: Who Wrote Song Nothing Compares To You? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is Prince. This article delves into the fascinating journey of this iconic song, from Prince’s pen to Sinéad O’Connor’s transformative performance, exploring how two distinct artists shaped a single masterpiece and how O’Connor ultimately made it her own.
Prince: The Original Architect of “Nothing Compares 2 U”
Prince Rogers Nelson was a songwriting machine. His vault reportedly holds thousands of unreleased songs, a testament to his boundless creativity. Among this vast catalog lies “Nothing Compares 2 U,” initially penned for The Family, a side project formed under his Paisley Park umbrella in 1985. The Family’s version, featuring lead vocals by Paul Peterson (St. Paul), is a soulful, albeit less widely known, rendition. It showcases Prince’s signature melodic genius and lyrical depth, hinting at the emotional core that Sinéad O’Connor would later unleash.
The original context of the song within Prince’s life adds another layer of intrigue. As Prince himself alluded to in his memoir The Beautiful Ones, the song was rooted in the deep emotional scars left by his parents’ divorce. He recounted witnessing his mother’s late-night pleas to his father, a childhood trauma that he believed fueled his ability to write potent breakup songs. This personal pain, though subtly veiled in The Family’s version, provided the raw material for the song’s intense emotional landscape. It wasn’t until 2018, after Prince’s untimely death in 2016, that his own 1984 studio recording of “Nothing Compares 2 U” was released, offering a glimpse into his original vision and further highlighting the song’s inherent power even before Sinéad’s interpretation.
Sinéad O’Connor’s Transformative Cover: A Song Reborn
While Prince laid the foundation, it was Sinéad O’Connor who truly brought “Nothing Compares 2 U” to global prominence and imbued it with its defining emotional weight. In 1990, on her sophomore album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, O’Connor’s version emerged, not merely as a cover, but as a complete re-imagining. She didn’t just sing the song; she inhabited it, channeling her own profound grief and personal experiences into every note and syllable.
O’Connor’s rendition stripped away some of the original’s soul-funk instrumentation, focusing instead on the stark power of her voice and the song’s raw lyrical vulnerability. Her performance was a masterclass in emotional delivery, conveying a depth of longing and pain that resonated universally. Many listeners, unfamiliar with The Family’s original, naturally assumed “Nothing Compares 2 U” was her own composition, a testament to how thoroughly she claimed the song. This “hostile takeover,” as some described it, was not about disrespecting Prince’s authorship, but about an artist connecting with a song on a molecular level and making it profoundly, undeniably her own. She transformed a breakup song into something much more personal and universal – a lament for loss, perhaps even for her own turbulent relationship with her mother, as many have speculated.
The Iconic Music Video: Tears and a Turtleneck in Close-Up
Adding another layer to the song’s impact was its unforgettable music video. In an era of MTV bombast and hyper-edited visuals, the video for “Nothing Compares 2 U” was strikingly minimalist and intensely powerful. Directed by John Maybury, the video primarily features Sinéad O’Connor in tight close-up, her shaved head stark against a black backdrop, clad in a simple black turtleneck. The focus is solely on her face, her raw emotion, and her captivating performance.
The video’s most iconic moment is undoubtedly the genuine tears that stream down O’Connor’s face during the bridge of the song. This unscripted display of vulnerability amplified the song’s emotional impact tenfold, forging an immediate and intimate connection with viewers. The simplicity of the visual concept, devoid of narrative or distractions, served to underscore the song’s central theme of raw, unfiltered emotion. It was a revolutionary approach for the time, standing in stark contrast to the prevailing trends of music video production, and it solidified “Nothing Compares 2 U” as a cultural touchstone of the 90s. The shaved head itself, a symbol of her defiance against record label pressures to conform to conventional feminine stereotypes, further contributed to her powerful and unconventional image.
Sinéad O’Connor: Art Born from Adversity
To truly understand the emotional depth Sinéad O’Connor brought to “Nothing Compares 2 U,” it’s essential to consider her personal history. Her childhood was marked by trauma, including a difficult relationship with her mother, who she described as abusive. This pain and resilience became inextricably linked to her artistry, fueling the fierce vulnerability that characterized her voice and her performances.
O’Connor was never one to shy away from expressing her beliefs, often at great personal and professional cost. Her outspoken nature, from shaving her head in defiance of industry expectations to her controversial protest on Saturday Night Live, cemented her image as an artist of unwavering integrity, even if it made her a polarizing figure. This willingness to be authentic, to lay bare her emotions, and to challenge societal norms is deeply embedded in her rendition of “Nothing Compares 2 U.” It’s this lived experience, this rawness, that she poured into the song, elevating it beyond a simple love lament into a profound expression of human pain and resilience.
Prince and Sinéad: A Collision of Artistic Forces
Despite the global success of her version, Sinéad O’Connor’s relationship with Prince remained complex and, at times, fraught. As detailed in her memoir Rememberings, she recounted a disturbing encounter with Prince, involving a summons to his home, an unsettling soup-serving incident, and a bizarre pillow fight that turned physically threatening. This incident left her deeply shaken and colored her feelings about both Prince and the song itself for a period.
While she acknowledged the song’s power and her connection to it, the negative experience with its writer cast a shadow. However, it’s undeniable that the contrasting personalities and artistic approaches of Prince and Sinéad ultimately contributed to the song’s multifaceted legacy. Prince, the enigmatic musical genius, created the song from his personal pain. Sinéad, the fiercely independent and emotionally raw artist, reinterpreted it through the lens of her own experiences, giving it a new layer of meaning and a broader emotional resonance.
“Nothing Compares 2 U”: An Enduring Legacy of Emotion
Decades after its release, “Nothing Compares 2 U” remains a powerful and deeply moving song. Sinéad O’Connor’s version has become the definitive rendition, a testament to her transformative artistry and the profound emotional connection she forged with listeners. The song’s enduring appeal lies in its universal themes of loss, longing, and the incomparable pain of heartbreak.
It is a song that speaks to the depths of human emotion, and in Sinéad O’Connor’s hands, it became an anthem for anyone who has ever experienced profound loss. While the question “who wrote song nothing compares to you” leads back to Prince, the song’s true legacy is inseparable from Sinéad O’Connor’s iconic performance. She didn’t just cover a song; she claimed it, redefined it, and in doing so, created a timeless masterpiece that continues to resonate deeply with audiences worldwide, a powerful tribute to both her artistry and the enduring strength of human emotion.
