Kiss from a Rose

"Kiss from a Rose" is a song from Seal's second eponymous album. The song was first released as a single in July 1994. Re-released in 1995, it was included on the Batman Forever film soundtrack, helping it top the charts in the US and Australia. At the 1996 Grammy Awards, it won awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Background
"Kiss from a Rose" was written in 1987, several years prior to the release of Seal's eponymous debut album from 1991. After writing the song Seal felt "embarrassed by it" and "threw the tape in the corner". Seal did not present it to producer Trevor Horn until the recording sessions for Seal II. In 2015, Seal said of the song: "To be honest, I was never really that proud of it, though I like what Trevor did with the recording. He turned that tape from my corner into another 8 million record sales and my name became a household name."

"Kiss from a Rose" was the second single taken from the Batman Forever film soundtrack, and topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for one week in August 1995. It also went to number four on the UK Singles Chart. The single originally made it to number 20 in 1994, but upon being re-released after being featured in the film, it reached the top position. It also won the MTV Movie Award for Best Song from a Movie in the 1996 edition. Seal talked about the long, strange journey that the song went through on The Brian McKnight Show season finale that aired 30 May 2010. He described how the song initially dropped out of the charts shortly after its release. Joel Schumacher subsequently called Seal, and requested use of the song to play over a love scene between the characters played by Nicole Kidman and Val Kilmer in Batman Forever. Although the song was eventually not incorporated into this scene, it was instead used to play over the end credits; Seal believes this change contributed to the song's eventual popularity.

Music video
Two versions of the music video were produced:
 * The original version is set in a photographic studio and was co-directed by Matthew Rolston and William Levin. The 1966 film Blowup was heavily referenced in the video.
 * The second version was directed by Joel Schumacher and has Seal performing the song beside the Bat-Signal, interspersed with clips from the film Batman Forever, with one clip from Batman Returns. This is the more popular video of the song. The director of photography of this version of the music video was Neil Abramson.

Track listing
Between all the formats of the single release, bonus tracks include the non-album tracks "The Wind Cries Mary" (a Jimi Hendrix cover) and "Blues in 'E'"; remixes of "Kiss from a Rose" by Adamski (who produced the original version of "Killer"); and remixes of album track "I'm Alive" by Steve Fitzmaurice and Sasha with BT.


 * "Kiss from a Rose" (radio edit) – 3:38
 * "Kiss from a Rose" (album version) – 4:47

Cover versions

 * Guitarist John Williams performed an instrumental version for his 1996 album John Williams Plays The Movies.
 * The King's Singers recorded a version of the song on their 1999 album Circle of Life.
 * Hank Marvin covered the song on his 2000 album Marvin at the Movies.
 * Irish vocal trio Trinití recorded a cover version for their first self-titled album.
 * Katherine Jenkins recorded her version of the track in her 2007 album Rejoice.
 * Jack Black performed a cover version on an American Idol charity special in 2007. The judges (Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell) each gave joke reviews of the performance (Randy said he wasn't feeling it, but that it would help if Black got better pants; Paula gave a negative review, while Simon said that Black sounded better than Sanjaya Malakar). However, Seal had stood up for Black and said it was "the best rendition of "Kiss from a Rose" [he] ever heard".
 * The Finnish band Northern Kings covered the song on their second album Rethroned.
 * French-Canadian singer Bruno Pelletier covered the song for his 2007 tour of Bruno Pelletier et le GrosZorchestre.
 * Idina Menzel covered the song during her 2008 Fall tour promoting her album I Stand.
 * Welsh male voice choir Only Men Aloud! also sang an arrangement by Tim Rhys-Evans and Jeffrey Howard on the BBC 1 Show Last Choir Standing in 2008. They subsequently released it on their self-titled début album.
 * A jazz interpretation is performed by Julia Hülsmann Trio on their album The End of a Summer.
 * US soul singer Jazmine Sullivan covered the song for French TV show Taratata. Her performance first aired on 15 May 2009 on French TV and is also available online on Taratata's official website.
 * Lee DeWyze performed a cover version as his "Songs from the Movies" category entry in the ninth season of American Idol. DeWyze went on to become the winner in the competition.
 * Swedish rock band April Divine have also a cover of this, and it was released upon their album Redemption (2010).
 * Vocalist Darlene Koldenhoven recorded her arrangement of Kiss from a Rose on her 2011 CD, Solitary Treasures.
 * Folk rock band The Becca Stevens Band, featuring bassist Chris Tordini, released a cover of this in 2011 on their album Weightless.
 * A hard rock version of the song can be found on the 2012 record Beautiful Alien by Atom Smash.
 * 12 Stones released a cover of the song online in 2012.
 * Head Control System released a cover version of the song on their official MySpace.
 * Japanese artist Angela Aki's rendition included Japanese lyrics on her fourth single "This Love".
 * A karaoke version of the song was featured in an episode of the third season of the NBC television series Community titled "Studies in Modern Movement", performed by Jim Rash as Dean Pelton and Joel McHale as Jeff Winger.
 * The song appears on Hallelujah – Live by Espen Lind, Askil Holm, Kurt Nilsen, and Alejandro Fuentes.
 * In 2009 Jazz artist Joe McBride did a jazz cover version for his album Lookin' for a Change
 * In 2010 New York City’s leading post post-feminist feminist all-female pop French horn quartet Genghis Barbie, used Evan Kuhlmann's Bassoon quartet arrangement adapted for French horn on their debut CD.
 * In 2013, Straight No Chaser covered the song with Seal on their Under the Influence album.
 * In 2014, Filipino pop and R&B band South Border released a cover video on YouTube.
 * In 2016, the NFL and Seal brought together football fans who were conceived by Super Bowl winning teams' fans to recreate this classic love song with a commercial entitled, "Super Bowl Babies Choir".
 * In 2017 on the British TV Show Pitch Battle, contestants covered the song with Seal joining towards the end.

In popular culture
In season 2, episode 7 ("A Bottle of Jean Nate") of Shameless, "Kiss from a Rose" is revealed as Jody's go-to love-making song; he's first seen having sex with Karen while listening to the song, and later to Sheila, Karen's mother.

In season 5, episode 7 ("The Gang Wrestles for the Troops") of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Dee plans to greet a returning US soldier she's been chatting with online with her alias "Desert Rose" by bringing roses, dressing up in a red dress with green stockings, and playing Seal's "Kiss from a Rose". When Dee runs away because he's in a wheelchair, Frank ends up playing the song and giving the soldier a gift of jean shorts for his services and salutes him, making the moment awkward for the soldier.

In season 3, episode 7 of Community, Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) and dean Craig Pelton (Jim Rash) are seen singing "Kiss from a Rose". Later in the episode the rest of the characters make fun of Jeff since the dean has tweeted their duet.

In season 5, episode 17 ("The Death Of The Queen Bee") of Bones, the song is featured in Temperance's reunion where she and Booth do a slow dance to the song. As the song starts in the background, Brennan eagerly requests Booth to dance with her, saying "Can we dance, Booth? It's Seal!"

In the 2015 film, Vacation (fifth entry in National Lampoon's Vacation franchise), the song is a favorite of Rusty Griswold (played by Ed Helms).

The song played at the 2009 Wodonga Senior Secondary College debutante ball.

In season 1, episode 6 ("Marcia, Marcia, Marcia") of American Crime Story, the song plays when Marcia Clark (Sarah Paulson) is getting her hair done at a salon, and again as she walks into the courtroom with her new look, the next day.

In the Ugandan action movie Who Killed Captain Alex?, a panpipes cover of "Kiss from a Rose" can be heard in multiple scenes, especially around the second half of the film.

The song was also featured in the 1994 film The NeverEnding Story III.

In 2017 in an ad promoting Discovery Channel's Shark Week, depicts Seal performing the song at a small beachside concert only to be swallowed mid-performance by a Great White Shark, leading to the humorous tagline "It is still a bad week to be a Seal."

Video games

 * The Batman Forever film edit version of the song is featured in Backyard Football '09.