Who did Prince write ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ about?
He might have offered it up to The Family and Sinead O’Connor, but Prince was evidently working through something personal when he wrote ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’. The ‘Purple One’ had so many women in his life that musing over who he wrote the song about almost seems like a moot point. It even passes you by as you listen and sink into the singular introspection of personal pity. In fact, to me, it has always seemed far too melodramatic to match the actual multitude of emotions that come with a genuine monogamous break-up and seems more like a songwriter striving to push self-pity to the max to create an anthem that turns histrionics into a weepy hit thriving on Richard Curtis fans.
As it happens, that’s just about the truth of it, and the inspiration behind it proves to be one of the most comical revelations in songwriting history. If the public image of Prince on a personal level is a diminutive diva with talent brimming over his little thrilly collar but a fair few lollypop-sucking strops under his belt, then the inspiration for this seamless chart-topping song does little to help his retrospective legacy.
As it happens, ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ did not come from the depths of some devastating break-up, but rather the pains of his housekeeper taking an extended leave of absence to deal with a pressing family matter. It was 1984 and Prince was alone in his Paisley Park mansion presumably staring at a mounting pile of dirty dishes and reaching for a pen rather than the washing up liquid to tearfully write: “It’s been seven hours and 15 days…”
Prince’s trusted sound engineer and lifelong collaborator, Susan Rogers, was around when he began to formulate the tragic song. “His young housekeeper, Sandy Scipioni, had to leave suddenly to be with her family,” she recalled. “Sandy ran Prince’s life.” As the artist struggled to cope with the rigours of a housekeeper-free reality outside of the studio, he took to despairingly asking Rogers: “When’s Sandy coming back?”
The star had just recently set up his own record label, Paisley Park, and despite a creative purple patch, it was becoming clear that he had “bitten off more than he could chew” when it came to balancing work with everyday tasks. So, stressed, weary and longing for the fresh scent of Lemon Pledge and the safe order of young Sandy Scipioni, he shuffled through his increasingly dishevelled mansion like Charlie Brown to be in private with a notebook for a while.
Within an hour, Rogers recalled, he emerged with ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ and now everything seemed right in his messy creative world. “He was a young man writing about domesticity,” she told The Guardian. “The line ‘all the flowers that you planted in my back yard went out and died’… it would have been Sandy who planted those flowers. ‘And I know that living with me baby is sometimes hard, but I’m willing to give it another try…’ There was no romantic relationship with Sandy. It’s not a pained ‘Help me, baby’ track. It’s: ‘You’re gone and I miss you,’ which is probably why he felt comfortable giving the song away.”
While this might temper the heartbreak and bring a wry smile to the mopey song, the fact that Prince happily gave it away shows that he did have a fair dose of self-awareness beneath all of his primadonna playfulness. “He released his material based on what he wanted us to know about him,” Rogers concluded, “and wonderful as it is, he didn’t want it to represent him.”
