Nothing Compares 2 U – Sinéad O’Connor

by

If you like this track, subscribe to the playlist:

Anguished breakup songs are maybe not super appropriate for lullaby purposes, but our culture has a lot more songs aimed at lovers than babies, so we have to make do with what we’ve got. 

We identify Sinead O’Conner so strongly with with this song that you may be surprised to learn, as I was, that it’s a Prince cover. In fact, it might be the only Prince cover in history that improves on the Purple One's original version. Sinead’s version was produced by the amazing Nellee Hooper, who also worked on Björk’s Debut. 

Audio production nerds should definitely check out the Sound On Sound article about the recording process of this song. Normally pop vocals require many hours in the studio. The typical strategy is to record every section repeatedly, and then piece together a flawless performance out of the best parts of all the takes. Every once in a while, however, a singer manages to nail the whole thing on the first try. Sinead nailed “Nothing Compares 2U” on her very first try. She managed to do her doubling part in one take too, which is almost unheard of. 

The story goes that Sinead was able to inhabit the song so completely because she was in the midst of a painful breakup herself, though sources differ on whether it was with her manager Fachtna O'Ceallaigh, with Peter Gabriel, or possibly even with Prince himself. Who knows the truth? It hardly matters, the main thing is that it’s a gorgeous performance of a gorgeous song.

Go To Playlist Home Page
Follow us on social:

You can learn more about Sinéad O'Connor here:

About the Curator - Ethan Hein

Ethan Hein is a Doctoral Fellow in Music Education at New York University. He teaches music technology, production and education at NYU and Montclair State University. With the NYU Music Experience Design Lab , Ethan has taken a leadership role in the creation of new technologies for learning and expression, most notably the Groove Pizza . In collaboration with Soundfly, he has developed a series of online music theory courses . He maintains a widely-followed and influential blog , and has written for various publications, including Slate, Quartz, and NewMusicBox.

Latest Posts

Solitude – Billie Holiday

14 November 2017

I could have filled this whole playlist with Duke Ellington songs, or Billie Holiday recordings. Recordings of Billie Holiday singing Duke Ellington songs are almost too much musical pleasure to bear. This one falls into that large category of songs that are maybe too depressing for lullabies if you think about the lyrics too hard, but the melody is so perfect, so why ruin a good thing?..

Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ – Michael Jackson

24 October 2017

You might think this song belongs more on a playlist for dancing your baby to sleep. It does indeed work great for that, though my kids prefer “Beat It” for dance party purposes. But like a lot of the best uptempo songs, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” also works well if you sing it slowly.

Free Fallin’ – Tom Petty

10 October 2017

“Free Fallin’” is my favorite Tom Petty song. I know that makes me sound basic, since it was his biggest hit, and the rest of his catalog is so wide and deep. But “Free Fallin'” really does it for me. In the wake of Petty’s death, I found the multitrack stems and listened to them closely. Later on, while singing the song to my daughter, I realized why I think it’s so cool: its ruthless, fearless minimalism. 

Ethan Hein

Ethan Hein

Ethan Hein is a Doctoral Fellow in Music Education at New York University. He teaches music technology, production and education at NYU and Montclair State University. With the NYU Music Experience Design Lab , Ethan has taken a leadership role in the creation of new technologies for learning and expression, most notably the Groove Pizza. In collaboration with Soundfly, he has developed a series of online music theory courses. He maintains a widely-followed and influential blog, and has written for various publications, including Slate, Quartz, and NewMusicBox.