Background and Composition
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." 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."
The London Community Gospel Choir, led by Nicki Brown, recorded backing vocals for the song, 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." No official music video was produced for the release.
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