By: koalafriend
OMG The Song Prince Gave Away That Became His Biggest Hit EVER
The Wild Story of How Sinéad O'Connor Turned a Forgotten Prince Track into the Iconic Nothing Compares 2 U
Listen up because we are about to spill the tea on one of the most iconic and dramatic stories in music history. Picture this: it’s 1990. MTV is king and a music video drops that stops the entire world in its tracks. A shaven-headed Irish singer stares into the camera her eyes filled with a universe of pain and then it happens. A single perfect tear rolls down her cheek.
That singer was the legendary Sinéad O'Connor and the song was Nothing Compares 2 U. It became a global No.1 an anthem for the heartbroken and the video became an unforgettable cultural moment. But what if I told you that this career-defining masterpiece this raw emotional gut-punch of a song was actually a hand-me-down?
Y'all this is the absolutely wild story of the song Prince gave away and how it became his biggest hidden hit.
The Secret Origin in Paisley Park
Let's rewind to 1985. Prince is at the absolute peak of his Purple Rain fame a musical demigod creating entire universes of sound from his legendary Paisley Park studios. He was so prolific that he was literally creating bands just to have an outlet for all his music. One of these projects was The Family a funk group fronted by his collaborator Paul Peterson.
Buried deep on their one and only self-titled album was a track called Nothing Compares 2 U. Prince wrote it he produced it he probably played every single instrument on it because he’s Prince. And guess what? Literally no one noticed. The album flopped and the song vanished into obscurity a forgotten deep cut for the most hardcore Prince fans. Can you even imagine?! A song that would one day top charts in over a dozen countries was just collecting dust.
A Star is Reborn
Fast forward five years. Sinéad O'Connor was a critically acclaimed artist known for her powerhouse vocals and rebellious spirit. While working on her second album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got her manager Fachtna Ó Ceallaigh suggested she cover this obscure Prince track.
And honey that's when magic happened.
Sinéad took Prince's soulful but relatively restrained demo and ripped it open. She infused it with a visceral raw-nerve agony that felt deeply personal. The production was stripped back focusing on her haunting vocals and those mournful synth strings. She wasn't just singing a song she was performing an exorcism of heartbreak for the entire world to see. It was a total transformation. She didn't just cover the song she claimed its soul.
The Tear Seen 'Round the World
Then came the music video. In an era of flashy over-the-top productions director John Maybury made a radical choice: just focus on Sinéad's face. The result was one of the most powerful videos ever made. When that tear falls it wasn’t planned. Sinéad later revealed she was thinking of her mother who had died a few years earlier. That genuine unfiltered emotion is what connected with millions. It was a viral moment before viral was even a thing.
The song exploded. It was the 1990 global No.1 catapulting Sinéad O'Connor into superstardom. It was everywhere. You couldn’t escape it and nobody wanted to. It was the perfect song at the perfect time performed by the perfect artist.
So What Did Prince Think?
Here’s where the drama gets juicy. You’d think Prince would be thrilled right? His forgotten song was now the biggest hit on the planet making him a fortune in songwriting royalties. Well the story is way more complicated.
According to Sinéad he was not happy. She famously recounted a bizarre and menacing late-night summons to his Hollywood mansion where they allegedly had a major confrontation. While the details remain legendary and disputed it’s clear their relationship was frosty at best.
It's classic Prince a genius so protective of his art that he couldn't fully embrace someone else's definitive interpretation of it. After her version became a mega-hit he started performing Nothing Compares 2 U himself reclaiming it in his live shows with epic guitar solos and his signature funk swagger.
The Vault Unlocks the Truth
For decades fans could only hear The Family's version or Prince's live recordings. But in 2018 the Prince Estate finally gifted the world with the original 1984 Vault demo. Hearing Prince's original version is a revelation. It's stunningly beautiful filled with his incredible falsetto a wailing saxophone and the raw emotion he originally poured into it.
It proves the song was always a masterpiece. It just needed the right messenger at the right time to deliver it to the world.
The legacy is undeniable. For Sinéad O'Connor it was the song that defined her career a blessing and a curse. For Prince it became the single most successful song he ever wrote commercially speaking. A song he tucked away on a forgotten album became his biggest songwriting hit ever all thanks to the Irish artist who made it her own. It’s the ultimate story of how a hidden gem can become a global crown jewel. Now that is iconic.
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