As if I needed one more reason I adore Sia, she not only chose to cover Madonna on her current album, We Are Born, the song the Aussie picked to record is a curious choice.

Sure, “Oh Father” was released as the fourth single from 1989’s Like A Prayer, but while Madonna had previously done quite well with ballads “Crazy For You” and “Live To Tell,” the song’s very personal subject matter would tell a different tale. “Oh Father” details the difficult and painful relationship Madonna had with Papa Ciccone following her mother’s death from breast cancer at age 30. (Madonna was 5 years old at the time.) The topic doesn’t exactly scream “hit record,” making the confessional song an odd choice for a single.

In fact, the public did shy away from Madonna expressing herself in this very private way (Sex is fine, family not so much). “Oh Father” only made as far as #20 on the Billboard Hot 100, going down in history as the song that ended Madonna’s streak of 16 consecutive top five Billboard singles and 17 top ten placements.

So “Oh Father” seems an odd choice of cover. Sia performed the song in concert several times prior to the release of We Are Born, changing the lyrics here and there in an attempt to personalize them. But as Sia later confessed to AfterEllen.com, Madonna didn’t approve those revisions when it came time to record the song. “She wasn’t having that, so I changed them back. You don’t want to piss off Madge.” Hear here:

Purchase Sia – “Oh Father” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.