Tag Archives: I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got

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Song of the Day #5,505: ‘You Cause as Much Sorrow’ – Sinéad O’Connor

Three years after her debut, Sinéad O’Connor was catapulted to a level of success she never expected or wanted. Her sophomore album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, went multi-platinum on the strength of hit single ‘Nothing Compares 2 U.’

That song, a cover of a Prince tune written for his side project The Family, spent four weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and made O’Connor a household name. Her gorgeous rendition, accompanied by an inescapable video depicting her beautiful, crying face against a black background, was the top song in the world through the winter of 1990.

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Song of the Day #3,163: ‘You Cause As Much Sorrow’ – Sinead O’Connor

sinead_oconnor_do_not_wantMy second favorite album of 1990 is Sinead O’Connor’s sophomore release, the worldwide smash I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. This was O’Connor’s second album, following the fierce The Lion and the Cobra, but the first impression many of us had of this remarkable talent.

Who can forget that impossibly beautiful porcelain face and bald head singing ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ against a black background on MTV?

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Song of the Day #560: ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ – Sinead O’Connor

It’s not every songwriter who can write matter-of-factly about their personal problems and spin it into addictive pop music. Sinead O’Connor pulled that off in spades on her breakthrough album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, with no better example than her hit ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes.’

The first line is a beauty: “It seems years since you held the baby while I wrecked the bedroom.” Such an evocative image, and it feels so real. And these lines, from the chorus, feel less like lyrics and more like something from an apology letter: “If I treated you mean, I really didn’t mean to. But you know how it is and how a pregnancy can change you.”

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