Sinéad O’Connor hit #1 with I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got

I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got Sinéad O’Connor

Released: March 20, 1990 Peak: 16 US, 11 UK, 114 CN, 11 AU Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.6 UK, 7.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: alternative rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Feel So Different [6:47] I Am Stretched on Your Grave (anonymous, Philip King, Chris Birkett, John Reynolds, O’Connor) [5:33] Three Babies [4:47] (10/20/90, 42 UK) The Emperor’s New Clothes [5:16] (4/7/90, 60 US, 31 UK, 40 AR, 1 MR) Black Boys on Mopeds (arranged by Karl Wallinger and O’Connor) [3:53] Nothing Compares 2 U (Prince) [5:10] (1/20/90, 1 US, 1 UK, 23 AR, 1 MR, sales: 1 million) Jump in the River (O’Connor, Marco Pirroni) [4:12] (9/17/88, 17 MR) You Cause as Much Sorrow [5:04] The Last Day of Our Acquaintance [4:40] I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got [5:47] All tracks are written by Sinéad O'Connor unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 51:09

Rating: 4.395 out of 5.00 (average of 19 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Earlier Years Sinéad O’Connor was born in 1966 in Ireland. The alternative-rock singer/songwriter released her debut album, The Lion and the Cobra, in 1987. The album achieved gold status in the United States and sold two-and-a-half million copies worldwide, promoted by the singles “Troy,” “Mandinka,” and “I Want Your Hands on Me.” O’Connor seemed on track to establish herself as a college-rock artist, but then life got in the way. “Her stormy relationship with drummer John Reynolds, who fathered O’Connor’s first child before the couple broke up,” AM “would inform the mood of her second full-length album.” TB The Second Album That album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, was an unexpected blockbuster, topping charts around the world and selling seven million copies worldwide. It was a “raw, compassionate, angry album” EW’93 which find O’Connor taking “on everything from lost love to racism in Britain, and her yowl will shred your speakers.” EW’93 The “music matched O’Connor’s unblinking stare on the cover.” EW’93 The Title The album’s title came to O’Connor in a dream about her mother. A medium told O’Connor that her mother asked for forgiveness. Sinéad’s sister was not able to offer forgiveness to which their mother said, “I do not want what I haven’t got” because she realized she didn’t deserve their forgiveness. RH “Nothing Compares 2 U” The album owed much of its success to “the stunning Prince cover Nothing Compares 2 U.” AM The original was “an obscure breakup ballad” 500 that was just “filler on a flop album by the Family.” 500 “The stark cover…pulled listeners into the startling confessions and brutal catharsis of a complicated singer whose gorgeous voice conveys vulnerability and defiance in equal measures.” UT “It became O’Connor’s signature song.” 500 She “changes the fundamental meaning of the song,” RH bringing her “fragility and…ferocity.” RH Her rendition became a reflection on her difficult relationship with an abusive mother who died in a car accident five years earlier. The raw emotion also came through vividly in the video. It lacked the quick-cut style of most videos, offering a close-up of Sinéad’s face instead. She’s wearing a black turtleneck and singing against a black background, “so it looks like her shaved head is floating in space.” SH A tear rolls down her cheek at one point. The Album’s Tone “But even its remarkable intimacy wasn’t adequate preparation for the harrowing confessionals that composed the majority of the album.” AM “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got lays the singer’s psyche startlingly and sometimes uncomfortably bare.” AM She “weaves a stubborn refusal to be defined by anyone but herself.” AM She “approaches each tune like she’s poised for a confrontation.” TM “The album is almost too personal and cathartic to draw the listener in close, since O’Connor projects such turmoil and offers such specific detail.” AM “Her confrontational openness makes it easy to overlook O’Connor’s musical versatility.” AM “The album plays like a tour de force in its demonstration of everything O’Connor can do.” AM “The album jumps from string-drenched balladry and traditional Celtic folk to slick pop,” TB “driving guitar rock, and protest folk.” AM “The common link throughout…[is] O’Connor’s impassioned vocal delivery” TB and “the frighteningly strong emotion O’Connor brings to bear on the material, while remaining sensitive to each piece’s individual demands.” AM The Album’s Impact This is “one of the most politically, socially, and spiritually charged breakup albums of the ’90s, if not the entire 20th century.” SL She “expanded the notion of what a female singer-songwriter could be.” TM She “came along at a time when demand for journal-scribbling Joni Mitchell intellectual types was waning.” TM O’Connor “went for something more visceral: flinty, quick-to-anger songs powered by outrage and indignation.” TM “Aside from being a brilliant album in its own right, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got foreshadowed the rise of deeply introspective female singer/songwriters like Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan, who were more traditionally feminine.” AM Other Songs Here are insights into other songs on the album beyond “Nothing Compares 2 U.” “Three Babies” “The songs mostly address relationships with parents, children” AM – such as the song Three Babies about her three miscarriages SH – and lovers. The song starts “in a mood of naptime-in-the-nursery reflection, but as it unfolds, O’Connor gathers up considerable fury, reaching into her pained and plaintive upper register for a series of devastating cries.” TM “Feel So Different” “O’Connor’s relationship woes are invariably linked to her career” SL and her “burgeoning fame,” SL leaving O’Connor “bruised but determined, disappointed yet hopeful.“ SL The opening song, “the gorgeous orchestral pop of Feel So Different,” SL is “a meditation on said fame and relationship: ‘I am not like I was before / I thought that nothing would change me.’” SL It starts with The Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr, WK “The Last Day of Our Acquaintance” O’Connor’s “breakup with Reynolds is likened to a business transaction on the stunning The Last Day of Our Acquaintance,” SL with “its avenging angel vocal [which] remains one of her finest efforts.” RD Anger, sadness, relief, and despondency are simultaneously bundled up in O’Connor’s voice” SL on this song and “Feel So Different,” “as it is throughout most of the album. Her voice is flawless in its technical imperfections; she begins each song delicately but ultimately erupts with the ferociousness of a punk.” SL “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and “Jump in the River” O’Connor “struck a nerve with her keening voice, her shaved head, and her tortured grandiosity in The Emperor’s New Clothes.” 500 “With ex-Adam Ant guitarist Macro Pirroni on board there is punk panache to [that song] and Jump in the River” RD “I Am Stretched Out on Your Grave” The “brilliantly audacious…I Am Stretched on Your Grave” AM features just O’Connor’s voice and drums. The “deep, almost religious incantation” TM took an anonymous 17th century Irish poem which Frank O’Connor translated into English and married it to “eerie Celtic melodies and a James Brown ‘Funky Drummer’ sample.” AM “Black Boys on Mopeds” “The acoustic protest-folk of Black Boys on Mopeds” SL is about two black teenagers who died in a confrontation with London police. SH The “lyrics now sound prophetic, both personally and politically” SL given the controversy she would create through high profile incidents such as tearing up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live: “These are dangerous days / To say what you feel is to dig your own grave.” “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” “The disc ends even more sparely than it begins; the a cappella title track brings the singer back to a place of prayer and hopeful redemption, but whether it’s God or a lover she seeks on her ‘journey,’ this is clearly the voice of someone who will never stop searching.” SL Notes: A 2009 edition of the album added a second disc of bonus tracks including “Night Nurse,” “My Special Child,” “Silent Night,” “You Do Something to Me,” “Mind Games,” “What Do You Want,” and “The Value of Ignorance.” It also included live versions of “Troy” and “I Want Your Hands on Me” (both from The Lion and the Cobra) and a remix of “I Am Stretched Out on Your Grave.”

Resources: AM AllMusic.com review by Steve Huey RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 650. EW’93 Entertainment Weekly (10/29/1993). “100 Greatest CDs: A Love-It-Or-Loathe It Guide to the Essential Disc Library” RH Rob Harvilla (6/2/2021). 60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s (podcast) TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. Pages 560-1. 500 Rolling Stone (2020). “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” SL Slant Magazine (6/30/2003). “Vital Pop: 50 Essential Pop Albums” by Slant staff TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 253. UT USA Today (12/5/2003). “Top 40 Albums – the USA Today Way” WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Pages: First posted 5/10/2008; last updated 12/24/2024.

Alec Wilder American Popular Song

Alec Wilder: American Popular Song

Alec Wilder’s book American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950 offers a nice snapshot into the pre-rock and roll era when songwriters and performers were largely viewed as separate entities. This book highlights the songwriters and offers a look at more than 850 songs. The book doesn’t rank the songs but I have created a top 100 ranking by looking at how many other lists the songs are featured on. Publication years for songs and the songwriters are indicated, but no specific artist is attached to each song. Click here to see other lists from critics and individuals and here to see other lists from publications and/or organizations “White Christmas” (1942) by Irving Berlin “Stardust” (1927) by Hoagy Carmichael & Mitchell Parish “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911) by Irving Berlin “St. Louis Blues” (1914) by W.C. Handy “Over the Rainbow” (1939) by Harold Arlen & E.Y. “Yip” Harburg “Body and Soul” (1930) by Johnny Green, Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, and Frank Eyton “Night and Day” (1932) by Cole Porter “Begin the Beguine” (1938) by Cole Porter “On the Sunny Side of the Street” (1930) by Jimmy McHugh & Dorothy Fields “Ain’t Misbehavin’” (1929) by Fats Waller “Take the ‘A’ Train” (1941) by Billy Strayhorn “All the Things You Are” (1939) by Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II “God Bless America” (1939) by Irving Berlin “Georgia on My Mind” (1930) by Hoagy Carmichael & Stuart Gorrell “Over There” (1917) by Geoge M. Cohan “Tea for Two” (1924) by Vincent Youmans & Irving Caesar “Cheek to Cheek” (1935) by Irving Berlin “The Man I Love” (1928) by George & Ira Gershwin “April in Paris” (1932) by Vernon Duke & E.Y. “Yip” Harburg “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home?” (1902) by Hughie Cannon & Johnnie Queen “I Got Rhythm” (1930) by George & Ira Gershwin “My Funny Valentine” (1937) by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart “Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin' All the Time)” (1933) by Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler “Mack the Knife” (1928) by Kurt Weill, Mark Blitzstein, & Berthold Brecht “Sophisticated Lady” (1933) by Duke Ellington, Mitchell Parish, & Irving Mills “Oh! Susanna” (1847) by Stephen Foster “Darktown Strutters’ Ball” (1917) by Shelton Brooks “Some of These Days” (1910) by Shelton Brooks “Blues in the Night (My Mama Done Tol’ Me)” (1941) by Harold Arlen & Johnny Mercer “Swanee” (1920) by George Gershwin & Iving Caesar “Hello Ma Baby” (1899) by Joseph E. Howard & Ida Emerson “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (1944) by Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane “I’m in the Mood for Love” (1935) by Jimmy McHugh & Dorothy Fields “Sweet Georgia Brown” (1925) by Ben Bernie, Kenneth Casey, & Maceo Pinkard “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (1936) by Cole Porter “My Blue Heaven” (1927) by Walter Donaldson & George A. Whiting “I Can’t Get Started” (1938) by Vernon Duke & Ira Gershwin “The Way You Look Tonight” (1936) by Jerome Kern & Dorothy Fields “My Melancholy Baby” (1928) by Ernie Burnett & George A. Norton “Blue Skies” (1927) by Irving Berlin “Rhapsody in Blue” (1924) by George Gershwin “It Had to Be You” (1924) by Isham Jones & Gus Kahn “Someone to Watch Over Me” (1926) by George & Ira Gershwin “September Song” (1939) by Kurt Weill & Maxwell Anderson “Camptown Races (Gwine to Run All Night)” (1850) by Stephen Foster “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” (1933) by Jerome Kern & Otto Harbach “For Me and My Gal” (1917) by George Meyer, Edgar Leslie & E. Ray Goetz “Carolina in the Morning” (1923) by Walter Donaldson & Gus Kahn “Blue Moon” (1935) by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart “Tenderly” (1947) by Walter Gross & Jack Lawrence “Dancing in the Dark” (1931) by Athur Schwartz & Howard Dietz “Satin Doll” (1953) by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, & Johnny Mercer “April Showers” (1921) by Buddy DeSylva & Louis Silvers “I’ll Be Seeing You” (1940) by Sammy Fain & Irving Kahal “Everybody Loves My Baby” (1924) by Spencer Williams & Jack Palmer “Peg O’ My Heart” (1913) by Alfred Bryan & Fred Fisher “After You’ve Gone” (1918) by Turner Layton & Henry Creamer “Ol’ Man River” (1927) by Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II “Oh Lady Be Good” (1924) by George & Ira Gershwin “Whispering” (1920) by John Schonberger, Richard Coburn, & Vincent Rose “Auld Lang Syne” (1799) adapted by Robert Burns “Always” (1926) by Irving Berlin “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” (1937) by George & Ira Gerswhin “Baby It’s Cold Outside” (1949) by Frank Loesser “The Memphis Blues” (1912) by W.C. Handy, George A. Norton, Charles Tobias, & Peter DeRose “Fly Me to the Moon” (1964) by Bart Howard “It Might As Well Be Spring” (1945) by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (1930) by Irving Berlin “How High the Moon” (1951) by Morgan Lewis & Nancy Hamilton “My Favorite Things” (1959) by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II “The Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)” (1851) by Stephen Foster “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” (1918) by Irving Berlin “Come Rain or Come Shine” (1946) by Harold Arlen & Johnny Mercer “Turkey in the Straw” (1820) by George Washington Dixon, Bob Farrell, & Otto Bunell/traditional “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” (1922) by Turner Layton & Henry Creamer “What Is This Thing Called Love?” (1930) by Cole Porter “Sometimes I’m Happy” (1935) by Vincent Youmans & Irving Caesar “It’s Only a Paper Moon” (1933) by Harold Arlen, E.Y. “Yip” Harburg, & Billy Rose “Moonglow” (1934) by Will Hudson, Eddie DeLange, & Irving Mills “The Japanese Sandman” (1920) by Richard A. Whiting & Ray Egan “Ballin’ the Jack” (1914) by James Henry Burris & Chris Smith “I Only Have Eyes for You” (1959) by Harry Warren & Al Dubin “Dinah” (1932) by Harry Akst, Sam M. Lewis, & Joe Young “The Nearness of You” (1937) by Hoagy Carmichael & Ned Washington “Where or When” (1937) by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart “My Buddy” (1922) by Walter Donaldson & Gus Kahn “Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town)” (1922) by Fred Fisher “Lover” (1933) by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart “I Get a Kick Out of You” (1934) by Cole Porter “Laura” (1945) by David Raskin & Johnny Mercer “How Deep Is the Ocean?” (1932) by Irving Berlin “Our Love Is Here to Stay” (1938) by George & Ira Gershwin “Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be!)” (1945) by Jimmy Davis, Ram Ramirez, & Jimmy Sherman “Sweet Sue, Just You” (1928) by Victor Young & Will Harris “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree” (1905) by Harry H. Williams & Egbert Van Alstyne “My Gal Sal” (1905) by Paul Dresser “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” (1919) by Irving Berlin “Manhattan” (1925) by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart “Fools Rush in Where Angels Fear to Tread” (1940) by Rube Bloom & Johnny Mercer “Sentimental Journey” by Ben Homer, Les Brown, & Bud Green Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: “lists from critics and individuals’ Dave’s Music Database: “Lists from other publications and/or organizations” Alec Wilder (4/27/1990). American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950. Oxford University Press. First posted 12/22/2025.

Sinéad O’Connor hit #1 with “Nothing Compares 2 U”

Nothing Compares 2 U Sinéad O’Connor

Writer(s): Prince (see lyrics here) Released: February 11, 1990 First Charted: January 20, 1990 Peak: 14 US, 14 BA, 13 CB, 14 GR, 13 RR, 2 AC, 23 AR, 11 MR, 14 UK, 15 CN, 18 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.02 US, 1.46 UK, 4.31 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 680.49 video, 425.56 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details. Awards (Prince): Awards (Chris Cornell):

About the Song: In the mid-‘80s, Prince was such a hit-making machine that he gave some away. Chaka Khan, Sheila E, Sheena Easton, and the Bangles all took Prince compositions to the U.S. top 10. One of the songs that got away, however, was the “dramatic, yearning, haunting and beautiful” LW “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Prince wrote the song for The Family, a group whose most notable success came as past and future members of Prince’s backing bands. TB Unlike the R&B and pop leanings of other artists who’d had hits with Prince songs, Sinéad O’Connor was an Irish alternative rock artist with one album under her belt which hadn’t produced any U.S. pop hits. When she covered “Nothing Compares 2 U,” no one could have predicted how huge it would become, much less that it would be the #1 song of 1990. RS500 Her performance is what made it a blockbuster. O’Connor holds back as if she can barely contain the emotion behind her voice. TC Within the same line, she sounded like she might “trail off into a breathy near-sob or let loose with a heartbroken wail.” AMG The “intensely heartfelt performance” TB was accented by a stark video which keyed in on O’Connor’s face. Four minutes in, she sheds a single tear, which she told VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s, was evoked by the line “All the flowers that you planted, Mama in the back yard/ All died when you went away,” and the feelings it stirred regarding her complicated relationship with her late mother. WK However, she has also cited as a split just two days before with manager Fachtna O’Ceallaigh as the reason. KL Either way, there is a sincerity in the moment that captures the purity of the song. Even Prince himself couldn’t top it. In 1993, he released a live-in-the-studio duet with Rosie Gaines for his 3-CD The Hits/The B-Sides collection, but it didn’t have the quality that made O’Connor’s version definitive. When Prince died in 2016, Chris Cornell – best known as the lead singer of Soundgarden – released a version of him singing the song live as a tribute to Prince. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Prince DMDB encyclopedia entry for Chris Cornell AMG All Music Guide TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Page 691. KL Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh (2005). 1000 UK Number One Hits: The Stories Behind Every Number One Single Since 1952. London, Great Britain: Omnibus Press. Page 354. LW Alan Lewens (2001). Popular Song – Soundtrack of the Century. Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 169. RS500 Rolling Stone (12/04). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 240. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 1/20/2013; last updated 1/14/2025.