Kiss from a Rose

One of the more mysterious songs ever written, there has been much speculation as to the meaning of "Kiss From A Rose" - many think it has something to do with drugs, while others hear it as an expression of love or a journey to the afterlife. Seal has never explained what the song is about, offering only that there was "some kind of relationship that inspired the lyrics." Seal bucked convention by not including printed lyrics with the album, something he did because he didn't want to wash away anyone's interpretation. He also says that his songs often mean more than one thing, so attributing a meaning would be too simplistic. In lieu of lyrics, Seal wrote a screed on the subject that went with the album. "I think it's the general vibe of what I'm saying that is important and not the exact literal translation," he wrote. "The song is always larger in the listener's mind because with it they attach imagery which is relative to their own personal experience. So it is your perception of what I'm saying rather than what I actually way that is the key."

Seal wrote this song sometime around 1988 when he was living in a squat in Kensal Green, London. He says it was a liberating time, as it was before he had a record deal and there was no pressure on him. He didn't know how to play any instruments, so he sang the instrumental parts onto a 4-track tape recorder as an experiment. He tossed the tape aside and thought nothing of it; when he recorded his 1991 debut album, he didn't even consider it. The song was revived two years later when Seal played if for his best friend, who told Seal's producer, Trevor Horn, about it. Horn made Seal play it for him, and he liked what he heard. They recorded the song for his second album (Seal, 1994), but they still nearly tanked it. "I thought it was too flowery and that it didn't fit," Seal told The Guardian. They were going to pull it from the tracklist, but reconsidered after their friend Lynne Franks heard the album-in-progress and said she liked "that song that was something about a rose."

The song was released as a single in the UK, where it went to #20 in July 1994. In America, the song didn't get noticed until it played under the end credits of the movie Batman Forever and was included on the soundtrack. The film was released in May 1995, nearly a year after Seal's album was issued. The movie appearance sparked demand for the song in the US; it was issued as a single there in June 1995 and climbed to #1 in August. Batman Forever was distributed by Warner Bros., the same conglomerate that owned Seal's US label, Sire Records. The song was submitted for a love scene featuring Nicole Kidman's Dr. Chase Meridian character and Val Kilmer's Batman, but the film's director, Joel Schumacher, decided it was a better fit under the end credits.