Post by erik on Aug 5, 2023 21:38:21 GMT -5
One of the most controversial figures in all of pop music history, Sinead O'Connor, is in the Pop Music Hits Spotlight with her only Top 40 U.S. hit (but one that topped the chart in the spring of 1990).
NOTHING COMPARES 2 U (Sinead O’Connor; Chrysalis; 1990)—Singers and bands from England are known for being brutally outspoken; but few of them were ever quite as controversial as Irish-born singer and songwriter Sinead O’Connor. Born near the end of 1966 in Dublin, O’Connor had an extremely rough childhood, marked by physical abuse on her by her parents, which resulted her in being put into mental institutions for periods of time. Nevertheless, she managed to get discovered during her teens singing a version of Barbra Streisand’s 1977 hit “Evergreen”, which, in due time, led to her getting a recording contract with Chrysalis, the label that boasted Blondie and Pat Benatar among the artists on its roster. O’Connor’s first album, 1987’s The Lion And The Cobra, was a larger worldwide hit album, reaching #36 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart in America, and giving her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. A song on that album, “I Want Your Hands On Me”, was later featured in the 1988 horror film A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. O’Connor’s biggest success, however, was to come in 1990 with the album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, which reached #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart in the fall of that year. One of the tracks on the album was “Nothing Compares 2 U”, a song written by Prince for the 1985 album The Family. This was to be O’Connor’s closest flirtation with a kind of pop star status that she really had no use for, as the song hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending April 21, 1990, and stayed there for four weeks. In fact, it was the only time that O’Connor would ever penetrate the Top 40 in America; and her only other Hot 100 hit was with another track from that album entitled “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, which stalled out at #60. After that, O’Connor became more notorious and untouchable, starting with her tearing a picture of Pope John Paul on a 1992 appearance on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, and also refusing to perform any place where the U.S. National Anthem would be played before any of her concerts. Her 1997 folk ballad “This Is To Mother You” would be recorded by Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, two big American admirers of hers, on their 1999 album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions; but for the final 23 years of her life, O’Connor struggled with mental issues and a genuine penchant for controversy. On July 26, 2023, O’Connor was found dead at her home in the Home Hill section of South London; she was only 56. Details of her passing, as of this writing, have not yet been released..
NOTHING COMPARES 2 U (Sinead O’Connor; Chrysalis; 1990)—Singers and bands from England are known for being brutally outspoken; but few of them were ever quite as controversial as Irish-born singer and songwriter Sinead O’Connor. Born near the end of 1966 in Dublin, O’Connor had an extremely rough childhood, marked by physical abuse on her by her parents, which resulted her in being put into mental institutions for periods of time. Nevertheless, she managed to get discovered during her teens singing a version of Barbra Streisand’s 1977 hit “Evergreen”, which, in due time, led to her getting a recording contract with Chrysalis, the label that boasted Blondie and Pat Benatar among the artists on its roster. O’Connor’s first album, 1987’s The Lion And The Cobra, was a larger worldwide hit album, reaching #36 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart in America, and giving her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. A song on that album, “I Want Your Hands On Me”, was later featured in the 1988 horror film A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. O’Connor’s biggest success, however, was to come in 1990 with the album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, which reached #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart in the fall of that year. One of the tracks on the album was “Nothing Compares 2 U”, a song written by Prince for the 1985 album The Family. This was to be O’Connor’s closest flirtation with a kind of pop star status that she really had no use for, as the song hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending April 21, 1990, and stayed there for four weeks. In fact, it was the only time that O’Connor would ever penetrate the Top 40 in America; and her only other Hot 100 hit was with another track from that album entitled “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, which stalled out at #60. After that, O’Connor became more notorious and untouchable, starting with her tearing a picture of Pope John Paul on a 1992 appearance on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, and also refusing to perform any place where the U.S. National Anthem would be played before any of her concerts. Her 1997 folk ballad “This Is To Mother You” would be recorded by Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, two big American admirers of hers, on their 1999 album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions; but for the final 23 years of her life, O’Connor struggled with mental issues and a genuine penchant for controversy. On July 26, 2023, O’Connor was found dead at her home in the Home Hill section of South London; she was only 56. Details of her passing, as of this writing, have not yet been released..