Song of the Day 10/6: Sinéad O’Connor, “All Apologies”

With all the attention to mental health these days, it would seem like a perfect time for a critical re-evaluation of Sinéad O’Connor, whose public behavior had people calling her crazy when Britney Spears was still in the Mickey Mouse Club.

“Nothing Compares,” the new documentary on O’Connor’s rise and fall, covers O’Connor’s early history, her rise to fame and rapid fall, concentrating on her strong stances on women’s rights, religion, child abuse and Irish politics. But most of the media coverage has been about Prince’s estate refusing to allow the director the rights to “Nothing Compares 2 U,” the Prince throwaway that became O’Connor’s biggest hit.

Overlooked after the furor over O’Connor’s anti-pope protest on “Saturday Night Live” were most of her later attempts at a comeback. After an album of standards puzzled everyone, she released “Universal Mother” in 1994. Some of the songs were uncomfortably confessional, others experimental in a pop/rock context, but some were stunning, like this cover of Kurt Cobain’s ode to resignation. Most people don’t remember that she grew her hair out at the time, but cut it to stubble again because, she said, people kept mistaking her for Enya.

“Nothing Compares” also leaves out the past two decades, during which time the singer converted to Islam and changed her name to, most recently, Shuhada Sadaqat, while occasionally popping up in gossip columns for outrageous statements that she usually walks back. She recently cancelled a planned tour after the suicide of her 17-year-old son.