| "Nothing Fails" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Madonna | ||||||||||
| from the album American Life | ||||||||||
| A-side | "Love Profusion" (Europe) | |||||||||
| B-side | "Nobody Knows Me" | |||||||||
| Released | November 21, 2003 (Europe) | |||||||||
| Format | CD maxi single 12" maxi single |
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| Recorded | 2003 | |||||||||
| Genre | Pop, soft rock | |||||||||
| Length | 4:48 (Album Version) 3:46 (Radio Edit) |
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| Label | Maverick, Warner Bros. | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | Madonna Guy Sigsworth Jem Griffiths |
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| Producer | Madonna Mirwais Ahmadzaï Mark "Spike" Stent |
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| Madonna singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Nothing Fails" is the third single by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her 9th studio album American Life. It was released by Maverick Records on November 21, 2003. There was little promotion to accompany it and no music video was filmed. The song performed poorly on most mainstream charts. The song was released as a double A-side to the fourth and final single "Love Profusion" in some territories such as the UK and Australia.
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The song started as a collaboration between Guy Sigsworth and singer Jem Archer as she was beginning work on her debut album. After two days of working in the studio the song "Silly Thing" was written, which later became "Nothing Fails". Sigsworth had initially planned to write the song for his wife. He said: "I never write love songs, but I was moved to write one for her. I've never had a problematic relationship with her, there's not been a lot of drama. But I wanted to write something naive and honest."[1] The song was later played for Madonna, who loved it and added to and changed parts of the song. On the song Archer said: "When I finally heard the finished song it was the strangest experience. It's not every day you hear Madonna singing words and melodies you sang into your dictaphone at two in the morning! I really admire her for being so involved in everything she does. The song sounds beautiful."[1]
The London Community Gospel Choir, led by Nicki Brown, recorded backing vocals for the song [2], and performed it with a choir during her MTV American Life Special. The strings engineer for the choir Geoff Foster recalls that the choir consisted of "a bunch of great singers giving it loudly, it was impressive."[1] No official music video was produced for the release.
Critical response to the song was generally positive. Entertainment Weekly called it "lovely" and named it, among other songs from the album "refreshingly - hell, shockingly - earnest".[3] Alex Petridis of The Guardian praised its choral finale, which E! Online called "warm" and "earthy". Slant Magazine labeled it a moment of greatness on the album.[4] However, Stylus Magazine compared it negatively to "Like a Prayer", calling it "an off-hand denouncement of religion" and stating that "the same old song, over 10 years later, just doesn't cut it anymore".[5] Stephen Thompson of The A.V. Club considered the song "emotionally resonant", but characterized the introduction of a choir as "busy".[6]
"Nothing Fails" was a minor chart success, but did not match the success of previous singles from American Life in Europe, charting outside the top twenty in some countries. In Canada the song charted in the top ten. It was a dance hit in the US though, charting at number one on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club play chart. In the UK, it remained unreleased as a single and was included as a radio edit on the "Love Profusion" single. In Australia, Warner released a maxi CD single of "Nothing Fails" (considered an album by ARIA, due to its playing time), a two-part CD single of "Love Profusion" (which, like the UK single, featured a radio edit of "Nothing Fails") and the "Remixed & Revisited" EP (again, considered an album by ARIA due to the number of different tracks) on the same day in December 2003. While "Love Profusion" peaked on the ARIA singles chart at #25, both "Nothing Fails" and "Remixed & Revisited" failed to chart on the ARIA albums chart. However, they did appear on the ARIA Dance Album chart at #5 for "Remixed & Revisited" and #6 for the "Nothing Fails" EP.
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Nothing Fails/Love Profusion
Nothing Fails/Nobody Knows Me
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| Chart (2003) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Dance Albums Chart | 6 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 51 |
| Canadian Singles Chart[18] | 7 |
| Danish Singles Chart | 11 |
| France SNEP Singles Chart | 34 |
| German Singles Chart | 36 |
| Germany Airplay Chart[19] | 2 |
| Greek Singles Chart | 19 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 10 |
| Italian FIMI Singles Chart | 7 |
| Romanian Singles Chart[20] | 49 |
| Spanish Singles Chart[21] | 1 |
| Swiss Singles Chart[22] | 41 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs | 1 |
| Preceded by "Devuelveme El Aire" by David Bustamante |
Spanish Singles Chart number-one single December 16, 2003 |
Succeeded by "Uno Mas Uno Son Siete" by Fran Perea |
| Preceded by "Wonderful" by Annie Lennox |
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs number-one single February 7, 2004 |
Succeeded by "Fake" by Simply Red |
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