Nothing Compares 2 U: The Performance of Prince through Cover Songs

Abstract

Prince was lauded as one of the greatest and most influential multi-hyphenate (singer-songwriter-producer-instrumentalist) in the music industry. He influenced many artists across different genres of music such as rock, funk and soul. Not only was his music timeless over the years as long as he began as a performer in the late seventies, his lyrics were thought-provoking, innovative and reflective of its time. Being a prolific songwriter, Prince wrote songs originally for other artists such as Stevie Nicks and The Bangles. Also, he obviously wrote songs for himself, but a few of these songs have been covered musically by other artists. These covers have proven to be successful critically and commercially for these artists. Critiques of Prince’s productions (as well as its covers) have been heavily discussed by numerous publications whether it has been in print or online. Nonetheless, none of these articles have addressed the comparison of each selection by Prince and the artist who has covered the Prince song at one time. The Prince songs that I will focus in this paper will be: “I Feel For You” covered by Chaka Khan, “Nothing Compares 2 U” covered by Sinead O’Connor and “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore” covered by Alicia Keys. I will specifically be looking and discussing the following: history behind the song how each song is performed how emotion comes into play that determines the meaning of the song highlight certain lyrics from each song that may be relational to the artist that covered the song audiences’ reception how each song achieved on the Billboard charts what has critics said about each song performed by Prince as well as the other artist what has Prince said about the artist who covered his song what was their experience covering the song and how it was working with Prince I argue that the Prince original and the covered version have different interpretations in regards to performance on how the song is convey to the listening ear. In conclusion, looking at these comparisons focuses on the genius of Prince and a small part of his rich musical history that impacted our American culture