Ensign 21759
Track listing: Feel So Different / I Am Stretched on Your Grave / Three Babies / The Emperor’s New Clothes / Black Boys on Mopeds / Nothing Compares 2 U /Jump in the River / You Cause as Much Sorrow / The Last Day of Our Acquaintance / I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got
April 28, 1990
6 weeks
With her stunning 1988 debut album, The Lion and the Cobra, and her striking, clean-shaven head, Irish-born Sinead O’Connor become one of the most promising and refreshing talents in rock. With her follow-up, O’Connor became superstar, albeit one of the most controversial in the pop world.
The one-time lead vocalist of the Dublin-based Ton Ton Macoute, O’Connor made her recording debut on the Captive soundtrack, which also featured score co-written by U2 guitarist The Edge. After signing to Ensign records in 1985, O’Connor recorded her debut with a cast of musicians that included former Adam & the Ants members Marco Pirroni on guitar and Kevin Mooney on bass, Irish chanteuse Enya, and O’Connor’s then-husband John Reynolds on drums. Yet it was O’Connor herself, whose unusual voice suggested a more aggressive version of Kate Bush, who garnered all the attention. The album reached number 36, even though it failed to generate a hit single. O’Connor wouldn’t face the same problem with I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.
Although only a rising talent in America, in the U.K., O’Connor was already a full-fledged star, and the new-found pressures of stardom served as a central theme in songs such as “Feel So Different” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The former song opens with the Serenity Prayer (“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change”) The prayer, taught to O’Connor as a youth by her mother, is familiar to those in 12-step programs.
“A lot of very dramatic changes have taken place in my life,” O’Connor explained to Edna Gundersen in USA Today. “I’ve had to make a lot of big decisions when I wasn’t too sure of what I was doing. And [the prayer] seemed the most appropriate way of asking for assistance. I only recently discovered there was no reason for me to worry, that everything was fine. I got to know myself a bit better.”
Possibly the biggest change in O’Connor’s life was a split with her manager and close friend Fachtna O’Ceallaigh. Before the break-up, it was O’Ceallaigh who suggested that O’Connor cover “Nothing Compares 2 U,” an obscure Prince tune originally recorded by the Family in 1985. The video for track, taped only days after her split with O’Ceallaigh, featured a close-up of a teary-eyed O’Connor. Ironically, O’Connor found a new manager in Steve Fargnoli, whose former client was Prince.
Buoyed by heavy MTV play, “Nothing Compares 2 U” hit the top of the Hot 100 on April 21. A week later, with the single still holding in the Number One position, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got hit the top of the album chart.
But life didn’t get any easier for O’Connor, as she found herself in the center of several media furors in the ensuing months. At a concert in New Jersey, she refused to have “The Star Spangled Banner” played before she hit the stage, leading several radio stations to ban her music. She also cancelled an appearance on NBC-TV’s “Saturday Night Live” when she learned that shock-comedian Andrew Dice Clay was scheduled host. When she did appear on the show, she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II, leading to another wave of anti-O’Connor fervor. Even her meeting with Prince ended up a disaster when she told the Irish music publication Hot Press that Prince had “threatened her with physical violence,” an allegation that Prince dismissed. In any case, the encounter gave “Nothing Compares 2 U” new resonance.
TOP FIVE
Week of April 28, 1990
1. I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, Sinead O’Connor.
2. Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, Janet Jackson
3. Soul Provider, Michael Bolton
4. Nick of Time, Bonnie Raitt
5. Forever Your Girl, Paula Abdul