Nothing Compares 2 U

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Nothing Compares 2 U
The Family
publication August 19, 1985
length 4:31
Genre (s) Ballad , pop music
Author (s) Prince
album The Family
Cover versions
2003 Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
2014 Aretha Franklin

Nothing Compares 2 U is a song released in 1985 by the American band The Family, founded by Prince , which Prince wrote , composed , arranged and produced . The cover version of the Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor developed into an international commercial success in 1990.

Emergence

Prince wrote the ballad Nothing Compares 2 U on July 18, 1984. During this time he was busy writing songs for the band's debut album The Family. This band was a musical side project of his, which can be assigned to the genre of new wave and pop music . Prince played all the instruments on Nothing Compares 2 U himself. He recorded the song in a warehouse in Eden Prairie , Minnesota, sound engineers were David Rivkin and Susan Rogers, with whom Prince worked often in the 1980s.

Publications

Version of The Family (1985)

The original version of Nothing Compares 2 U was released on August 19, 1985 on the record label Warner Bros. Records / Paisley Park of the album The Family by the band of the same name. The song is 4:31 minutes long and was not released as a single. The song's singer is Paul Peterson, who is from Minneapolis , Minnesota, like Prince - his stage name is St. Paul. Nothing Compares 2 U received little attention until the release of Sinéad O'Connor, and the band The Family broke up in 1985.

In 2009, lead singer St. Paul reunited the band under the name fDeluxe .

Version by Sinéad O'Connor (1990)

The cover version of Sinéad O'Connor was released in January 1990 as a pre-single of their album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got released in March 1990 on the Chrysalis Records label . The single was produced by O'Connor and Nellee Hooper and became an international number one hit. With its successor singles but the singer was not able to the commercial success of 2 U Nothing Compares tie.

Vinyl single
A-side: Nothing Compares 2 U - 5:08
B-side: Jump in the River - 4:13

Vinyl maxi single / CD single

  1. Nothing Compares 2 U - 5:08
  2. Jump in the River - 4:13
  3. Jump in the River (instrumental version) - 4:04

Chart placements

Charts Top ranking Weeks
Chart placements
Germany (GfK) Germany (GfK) 1 (32 weeks) 32
Austria (Ö3) Austria (Ö3) 1 (21 weeks) 21st
Switzerland (IFPI) Switzerland (IFPI) 1 (29 weeks) 29
United States (Billboard) United States (Billboard) 1 (21 weeks) 21st
United Kingdom (OCC) United Kingdom (OCC) 1 (18 weeks) 18th

Awards for music sales

Country / Region Award Sales
Awards for music sales
(country / region, Award, Sales)
Germany (BVMI) Germany (BVMI) Gold record icon.svg gold 250,000
Austria (IFPI) Austria (IFPI) Platinum record icon.svg platinum 50,000
Sweden (IFPI) Sweden (IFPI) Gold record icon.svg gold 25,000
United States (RIAA) United States (RIAA) Platinum record icon.svg platinum 1,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI) United Kingdom (BPI) Platinum record icon.svg platinum 600,000
All in all Gold record icon.svg2 × gold
Platinum record icon.svg3 × platinum
 1,925,000

Version of Prince (1993)

Only after Sinéad O'Connor had achieved worldwide success with their cover version, released Prince own version of Nothing Compares 2 U . On January 27, 1992, he gave an invited-only concert at his Paisley Park studio in Chanhassen , Minnesota, where he performed the song live in a duet with singer Rosie Gaines . This live recording was released on September 13, 1993 on Prince's greatest hits compilation The Hits 1 and The Hits / The B-Sides on the Warner Bros. Records / Paisley Park Records label. His version is 4:57 minutes long and was only released as a promo single . Moreover Nothing Compares 2 U at the Prince compilation 4Ever (2016) exist.

Version of Prince (2018)

On April 19, 2018, Warner Bros. Records posthumously released the original studio version of Prince 's recording of Nothing Compares 2 U from 1984 on various music streaming providers and on YouTube . The version was also placed on the Originals album in June 2019 . A music video of the song was also produced, showing Prince rehearsing in the summer of 1984.

Cover versions (selection)

Apart from Sinéad O'Connor , various musicians from different genres covered the song Nothing Compares 2 U and released it on phonograms .

Awards

ASCAP Pop Awards

  • 1991: Composer for the song Nothing Compares 2 U (Composer of the song Nothing Compares 2 U ): Prince

Rolling Stone (US edition)

165th place: Nothing Compares 2 U (in the version by Sinéad O'Connor)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Nilsen (1999), p. 283.
  2. ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 264 and P. 283.
  3. ↑ Hahn (2006), pp. 135-136.
  4. ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 172.
  5. ↑ fDeluxe - Our Family Story. In: Homepage of fDeluxe. 2014, accessed on March 16, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Ewing (1994), p. 115.
  7. ↑ a b c d e Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US IE1 IE2
  8. ↑ GOLD / PLATINUM database. musikindustrie.de, accessed on August 16, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Gold & Platinum. ifpi.at, accessed on August 16, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Guld-Platina 1987-1998 . ( Memento from January 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) ifpi.se, accessed on August 16, 2020 (English).
  11. ↑ Gold & Platinum. riaa.com, accessed August 16, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Sinead O'connor - Nothing Compares 2 U. bpi.co.uk, accessed on August 16, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Booklet of the CD The Hits / The B-Sides by Prince, Warner Bros. Records / Paisley Park, 1993
  14. ↑ Sensational find in the archives: Nothing Compares 2 U heard for the first time as a studio recording by Prince. In: Warnermusic.de. April 19, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2018 .
  15. ^ Nothing Compares 2 U. In: COVER.INFO. 2019, accessed January 28, 2019 .
  16. ↑ SecondHandSongs. 2017, accessed on March 16, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Covers of Prince Nothing Compares 2 U on WhoSampled.com
  18. ^ The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Plays Prince. In: Musik-sammler.de. 2017, accessed March 16, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 123.
  20. ↑ Rolling Stone - 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time (2010). 2017, accessed on March 16, 2017 .