Prince recorded "Nothing Compares 2 U" first, in July 1984, but he was not the first to release it. The song he wrote reached the public on The Family’s debut album in August 1985. Sinéad O’Connor turned it into an international hit with her 1990 interpretation. Prince’s 1984 studio recording did not receive its own release until April 19, 2018. Distinguishing songwriting, recording, commercial release and the best-known performance resolves the apparent contradiction.
Timeline: six milestones, four distinct questions
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| July 15, 1984 | Prince makes the earliest documented recording at his Warehouse studio in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. |
| August 1985 | The Family releases the track on its self-titled album, without issuing it as a single. |
| 1990 | Sinéad O’Connor releases her interpretation as a single and includes it on I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. |
| 1993 | A Prince duet with Rosie Gaines appears on the compilation The Hits/The B-Sides. |
| April 19, 2018 | The Prince Estate and Warner Bros. release the original 1984 studio recording for the first time. |
| June 2019 | The original recording is included on the posthumous album Originals. |
What did Prince record before The Family?
Prince’s official discography and Rhino date the first session to July 15, 1984, at the Flying Cloud Drive Warehouse, with engineer Susan Rogers. Prince wrote the song, recorded his voice and instruments, and developed the underlying track that would feed into The Family project. Writing and recording a song, however, did not mean his 1984 version was commercially available at the time.
Other contributions became part of the recording’s history. The 2018 edition credits backing vocals by Susannah Melvoin and Paul Peterson, along with saxophone by Eric Leeds. Calling it the "original" therefore identifies its roots in the 1984 sessions, not a recording wholly free of other musicians or later mixing work.
Why did The Family release it before its songwriter?
The Family was a project assembled by Prince and associated with Paisley Park Records. For its August 1985 album, St. Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin took over the lead vocals from Prince, while Eric Leeds added saxophone and Clare Fischer provided string orchestration. The official discography describes Prince laying down the album’s original instruments and tracks before those additional contributions.
The Family did not release the song as a single, and it attracted limited attention at the time, according to Rhino and ABC. That is why "first released version" refers to The Family, while "first recorded version" still refers to Prince. The distinction does not make the band the songwriter.
What changed with Sinéad O’Connor in 1990?
The Irish singer delivered a more stripped-back, vocally focused reinterpretation as the lead single from I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. Her recording reached number one in multiple countries, supported by a music video built around close-ups and expressive emotion. ABC documents both the leap in popularity and the change in sound from The Family’s version.
Sinéad’s success does not erase the earlier recording or change the writing credit. It represents a different milestone: the performance that made the song widely known, five years after it first appeared on an album.
Why was 2018 not the first time Prince had been heard singing it?
Following Sinéad’s success, Prince began performing "Nothing Compares 2 U" live and released a duet with Rosie Gaines on the 1993 compilation The Hits/The B-Sides. The 2018 event was different: it brought the previously unreleased original studio recording dating back to 1984 to the public. According to the Prince Estate and Warner Bros. announcement, it was issued on April 19, with a mix by Tony Maserati.
In 2019, that recording was included on Originals, an album collecting Prince recordings of songs associated with other artists’ releases. The distinction remains accurate despite those later editions: Prince recorded the song first, The Family released it first, and Sinéad O’Connor made it famous.
