It might be remembered as a decidedly mediocre superhero movie (and that’s putting it kindly), but 1995’s Batman Forever did have at least one high-quality thing going for it. In their infinite wisdom, the producers included Seal’s Kiss From A Rose on the soundtrack, giving this 1994 song a new lease of life and sending it to number one in the US.
The story goes that Seal was never particularly proud of Kiss From A Rose, and hesitated in bringing it to producer Trevor Horn while they were making Seal II, his second studio album. Speaking in a series of shorts on his YouTube channel, though, Horn recalls that Seal had a clear vision for the song’s memorable vocal harmonies as soon as he came into the studio.
Discussing the origins of his song, Horn says: “Seal said to me while we were doing the first album, ‘I’ve got this song – it’s a bit like Greensleeves.’ I was like, ‘that sounds interesting.’
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“And then we were working on the second album. We had all the songs, and then we were getting to the ones that weren’t so good, and I said to him, ‘What about that song that was like Greensleeves? Have you got that – let me hear that.’ And about three days later he came in with this demo, and the demo was really good.”
Not only that, but Seal knew exactly what was required to elevate the song further.
“Seal came in and said, ‘I’ve got some ideas for vocal harmonies on Kiss From A Rose – can we do them?’ And we did them all on this Tuesday afternoon, and that Tuesday afternoon was one of the best sessions I ever had in my whole life.”
Given how many sessions he’s been in, this is a bold statement, but as Horn remembers it, that session whizzed by in a blaze of creativity.
“Seal was just brilliant,” he says. “You listen to all the vocal harmonies on Kiss From A Rose – all the crazy contrapuntal counterpoint stuff. He had it all in his head, and we were just going like mad, really fast – four-tracking this, four-tracking that – and Seal was just doing it. And I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know where you thought of this stuff – it’s brilliant.’
“You know, who would have thought that Greensleeves would have R&B vocal licks in it? It was such a brilliant combination of things, and I think that’s the moment where I thought, ‘This is not bad this track – it’s actually really good.”
Horn suggests that, despite his initial reservations, Kiss From A Rose was very much Seal’s baby – he’s credited as the sole writer – but the producer can point to a couple of specific things that he brought to the party.
“My main contribution to the song arrangement itself was that I put in a 3/8 bar. You wouldn’t notice it. I mean, it was a bit of a freaker when we first did it, but it enabled him to sort of get a breath.”
Kiss From A Rose has a 3/4 time signature, giving it a waltz feel, but the subtle timing shift that Horn is talking about occurs in the verses, when Seal sings ‘you became’ or ‘you remain’.
As well as playing with the song’s time signature, Horn also made a brief change to the key – specifically, in the bridge.
“On his demo it was in the same key as the rest of the song, and I made it go down a key, so it could come back up a key at the end of it,” says Horn.
Again, this trick is barely noticeable unless you’re listening for it, but the payoff is that, when the next verse starts, it automatically gets a slight lift.
Kiss From A Rose is a perfect example of an artist and producer working in sync, then – and a song that’s aged far better than the film it featured in.
