Latest news with #Prince-penned
Extra.ie
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
35 years ago: Sinéad O'Connor hit No.1 in the US with Nothing Compares 2 U
This week 35 years ago, Sinéad O'Connor kicked off a four-week run at No.1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart with her iconic rendition of the Prince-penned track 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. The single, which featured on Sinéad's second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, topped charts around the world and has since been listed among the greatest songs of all time. To mark its anniversary, we're looking back at some special Hot Press reflections on 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. Over the years, Prince provided several memorable hits for other artists, including Manic Monday for The Bangles and Nasty Girl for Vanity 6. Perhaps the most iconic of all, however, was Nothing Compares 2 U, which became a career-defining smash for the extraordinary Sinéad O'Connor. Originally an obscure soul ballad tucked away on an album by funk group The Family, O'Connor and Bristolian trip-hop pioneer Nellee Hooper gave the track a dramatic new arrangement, topped off by O'Connor's epic, heart-wrenching vocals. Niall Stokes on 'Nothing Compares 2 U' published in Hot Press in July 2023, as part of a tribute to Sinad O'Connor: 1990. A week into the new year, Chrysalis released the headline single from Sinéad's second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, her version of Prince's song, 'Nothing Compares 2 U.' The accompanying video was a masterstroke. Shot by John Maybury, it consists almost entirely of a close-up ofSinéad'ss face. As she navigates the song and delivers the lyrics, the emotional shifts are visible in the young singer's baleful expression. And then she hits the opening lines of the final verse. All the flowers you planted, Mama, she sang, In the back yard / All died when you went away…Sinéad would later say that singing the word Mama had reminded her of her own mother, who had died in a car accident early in 1985. That caused a tear to flow down one cheek. The camera didn't flinch. As the song neared its climax, a second tear flowed down the other cheek. It was a moment of accidental pop profundity, a marriage of music and video that achieved a riveting impact on what was, suddenly, the ultimate break-up song. The video captured the imagination, especially among the emerging generation of young women, catapulting the single to the top of the charts worldwide. Sinéad O'Connor was the hottest star on the planet. I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got followed, going to No.1 in almost 20 countries and selling over 2 million copies in the US alone. Sinad O'Connor on 'Nothing Compares 2 U' originally published in Hot Press in 2000: I still get told that the video for Nothing Compares 2 U is a landmark in videomaking, that it still stands up. Which is amazing and quite funny, because the concepts we had for it were not remotely what happened in the end. What happened was that during one of the setups, we originally had about 15, and all the emotion of the song kind of came up for me. All the associations I had, and all the things I'd been thinking about, that linked me with the song, suddenly came together at once. Cos, you know, I guess I'm the sort of performer where the stuff I do is quite emotional and all. I only sing songs that mean something to me personally. I'm not really, if you like, an Ooh, baby baby kind of singer. So I was sitting there, doing this one shot, and suddenly all the emotion of it occurred to me, and I couldn't help having a little cry for a minute. And in the end, when they looked at the rushes, they decided to just go with that one shot, which had never been done before. But it wasn't in the plan. Mind you, it wasn't in the plan to be crying, either. An extract from the late Bill Graham's review of I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got for Hot Press (1990): …the magnificent 'Nothing Compares 2 U' will endure long past most pop hits' natural radio shelf-life exactly because this song of supplication also so acutely conveys an undercurrent of sulky defiance in its confrontation of love love. I've already heard it sung on the last bus, and that's the ultimate compliment…
Express Tribune
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Miley Cyrus & Brittany Howard perform ‘Nothing Compares 2 U' on ‘SNL50' without O'Connor mention
Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard delivered a powerful rendition of Nothing Compares 2 U during SNL50: The Anniversary Special on Sunday night. The Prince-penned track became a global hit after Sinéad O'Connor recorded it for her 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got. While their performance seemed to honor O'Connor, there was no mention of her 1992 Saturday Night Live controversy. That year, she famously tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II after performing Bob Marley's War , declaring, 'Fight the real enemy,' as a protest against sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. The act led to her ban from SNL and widespread backlash, including mockery on the show and criticism from host Joe Pesci. O'Connor later addressed the moment in her 2021 memoir, Rememberings : 'A lot of people say or think that tearing up the pope's photo derailed my career. That's not how I feel about it. I feel that having a number-one record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track.' In an interview with People the same year, she reflected, 'I was well aware there would be [backlash]… We joke in Ireland or in Europe that Americans don't think anything happened until it happened to them.' O'Connor passed away in 2023 at the age of 56.
