The Only Recording of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ Released

You'll want to listen to this, we promise.

prince
Prince performing on stage during his Purple Rain Tour. (Richard E. Aaron/Redferns)

Back in 1984, Prince recorded a song titled, Nothing Compares 2 U. He decided not to release it himself, but sent it over to Paul “St. Paul” Peterson of The Family, and the band recorded the track for Prince’s label, Paisley Park Records. It appeared on their debut album, but the song remained laregely unheard B-side until Sinead O’Connor covered it in 1990 — this remains the best known recording of the song. Prince would occasionally play the song live, but the studio version that he originally recorded has never been heard — until now. According to Esquire, Prince’s estate, along with Warner Bros; Records, has released the original version of Nothing Compares 2 U, written, arranged, performed and produced by Prince.

It was recorded by Susan Rogers in 1984 at the Flying Cloud Drive Warehouse in Minnesota. Rogers told The Guardian that one day, Prince went into a room with a notebook and came back one hour later with the lyrics for the song. She said, “The song came out like a sneeze.” Rogers said that Prince didn’t want to release the track under his own name because it was about a domestic life he’d never had. Listen to the song above, and cross your fingers that it is a sign of what’s to come out of the thousands of Prince recordings hidden inside the vaults of Paisley Park.

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