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The Cranberries Singer Dolores O’Riordan Had the Best Response to the Ego-Bruised Man She Wrote ‘Linger’ About

What do you say to the guy you wrote an international hit song about when he wants to make ammends for dumping you as a teenager?

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Dolores O’Riordan wrote the lyrics to the Cranberries’ 1993 hit “Linger” after being publicly dumped by a guy at a disco club. The song began as just chord shapes, she described to The Guardian in 2017. It was the first proper song the group wrote, shortly after O’Riordan auditioned for the band, where they gave her a tape of the music.

“I wrote about being rejected,” she said. “I never imagined that it would become a big song.” The lyrics were inspired by O’Riordan’s first real kiss when she was 17 years old, she explained, on the dance floor of a club called Madonna’s.

“This guy asked me to dance, and I thought he was lovely,” she said. “Until then, I’d always thought that putting........

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