Who Originally Sang “Nothing Compares 2 U”?
Sinéad O’Connor did not write “Nothing Compares 2 U”.
Prince did.
But even Prince wasn’t technically the first artist to release it commercially.
The first released version appeared in 1985 on the only album by The Family, a Prince-created group signed to Paisley Park Records.
It attracted little attention.
Five years later, O’Connor transformed the song into one of the defining recordings of the 1990s.
When did Prince write it?
Prince recorded an early version himself at his warehouse studio in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
Engineer Susan Rogers was there.
She later recalled Prince writing the lyrics quickly before recording the song.
That original Prince recording wasn’t released to the public until 2018.
So who recorded it first?
Prince recorded it first.
The Family released it first.
Sinéad O’Connor made it famous.
That’s the cleanest answer.
The Family version appeared on their self-titled 1985 album.
Prince’s own 1984 studio recording remained in the vault.
O’Connor’s recording arrived in 1990.
Why was Sinéad O’Connor’s version so much bigger?
Space.
The Family’s version contains much more obvious 1980s production.
O’Connor’s recording strips much of that away.
Her voice becomes the centre.
The arrangement doesn’t compete with her.
Then there is the video.
Why does Sinéad O’Connor cry in the video?
The music video is extraordinarily simple.
O’Connor’s face fills the screen.
She sings.
Near the end, tears roll down her cheeks.
That image became inseparable from the song.
O’Connor later explained that the emotion was connected with thoughts of her mother, who had died in a car accident years earlier.
The song therefore acquired a personal emotional meaning that had nothing to do with Prince’s original inspiration.
That’s part of what great interpreters do.
They don’t merely sing somebody else’s words.
They find their own reason to believe them.
Was Prince happy with her version?
Their relationship became famously complicated.
O’Connor later described an unpleasant encounter with Prince after her version became successful.
Whatever happened personally, the musical result is undeniable.
O’Connor’s recording turned Prince’s relatively obscure composition into a worldwide No. 1.
Why is the title written with “2 U”?
Because Prince.
Prince frequently played with spelling, symbols and shorthand in song titles and lyrics.
Long before texting made “2 U” completely normal, Prince was already using this kind of language as part of his musical identity.
What does the song mean?
Absence.
The narrator is free after a relationship ends.
She can do whatever she wants.
There is nobody telling her what to do.
Yet freedom doesn’t feel good.
Because everything reminds her of the person who is gone.
That emotional contradiction is the song.
You wanted independence.
Now you have it.
And you’d trade it to have the person back.
Which version is best?
That’s personal.
The Family version is interesting historically.
Prince’s original gives you the songwriter.
O’Connor’s gives you the definitive cultural recording.
Listen to all three in order:
Prince’s 1984 recording
The Family’s 1985 release
Sinéad O’Connor’s 1990 version.
It’s almost like watching the same script given to three different directors.
Songs with similarly surprising origins
Amy Winehouse – Valerie
Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You
Johnny Cash – Hurt
Soft Cell – Tainted Love
Aretha Franklin – Respect
Jimi Hendrix – All Along the Watchtower
Sometimes the person who writes the song isn’t the person history remembers singing it.
Who originally sang “Nothing Compares 2 U”?
Prince recorded it first.
The Family released it first.
Sinéad O’Connor made it immortal.
All three answers matter.