Songoftheday 11/17/19 - There used to be a greying tower alone on the sea, you became the light on the dark side of me...

"Kiss From A Rose" - Seal
from the albums Seal (1994) and Batman Returns (Original Soundtrack) (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 32

Today's song of the day comes from the British singer Seal, who had led off his second album, also titled Seal like his first, with the lush pop of first single "Prayer For The Dying", which reached the top-20 on the American pop chart in the summer of 1994. The second release was an elegant waltz titled "Kiss From A Rose", written by Seal and produced by Trevor Horn. While it was a moderate success in the UK, peaking at #20, it only stayed in the British top-40 for three weeks and didn't cross over to America at all. That was until director Joel Schumacher requested to use the song in his movie Batman Returns, eventually ending up the end title song. "Kiss From A Rose" was re-released as the second offering from the soundtrack, after U2's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me", and went on to be the biggest hit from the film as well as from Seal's career...

"Kiss From A Rose" rose to the top of the American pop chart in August of 1995. The song was a massive success on "easy listening" radio, spending twelve weeks at #1 on Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary radio chart, and lasting long enough to spend three weeks on their newly-birthed Adult Top-40 chart the following year. It also made it to #35 on their Alternative Rock radio tally, and scored his first R&B hit, peaking at #52. Internationally, the song spent six weeks at #1 in Australia, and reached the top ten in Canada (#2), the Netherlands (#3), Austria (#3), Norway (#3), the UK (#4), Ireland (#4), Switzerland (#7), France (#8), and Sweden (#8). It also made #11 in Germany. At the Grammy Awards in 1996, the song won for Record Of The Year, Song of the Year, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

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Before its use in Batman Returns, the song sported a dark and insidious video with the artist...