With the passing of Joel Schumacher on Monday, many people in the industry that had the honor of working with him have taken the time to speak highly of the director. From Jim Carrey to Kiefer Sutherland to Matthew McConaughey, no one has had a bad word to say about him and most credit him with impacting their careers in a big way. McConaughey mentioned that he owes his career to Schumacher for casting him in A TIME TO KILL and now Grammy-winning artist Seal, is also giving the director credit where credit is due.
Seal is no actor but he is a singer-songwriter that was on his second album when his path crossed with Schumacher's. Seal hadn't seen true mainstream success in the States and in 1994 a song on his second album called "Kiss From a Rose", had barely made an impression on the charts. After taking to his Instagram page and singing a few bars from the song, Seal revealed how Schumacher turned a flop into his biggest hit after it was used for the BATMAN FOREVER soundtrack in 1995. Seal says "It was the fourth single from my second album. It went into the charts at No. 60 and dropped to No. 80-something the next week and that was the end of it. It was over."
It wasn't until Seal was in the studio working on his next album that he got a call from Schumacher who explained that he was looking for a song to use during the love scene in his BATMAN film. Seal couldn't think of one that might work but his manager at the time sent the director the album with "Kiss From a Rose" highlighted. Schumacher then called the next day and said the song didn't mesh with the scene but he loved the song so much that he planned on using it during the end credits.
From there, the song would take off like a rocket. Seal says that the song "was not re-recorded or re-produced" and that the only thing they did was shoot a music video for it with Seal belting out the song in front of the Bat-signal with scenes from the intercut throughout (such was the style of music videos for movie songs in the 90s). The song went on to win the 1996 Grammy for record of the year, song of the year and best male pop vocal performance and it helped propel sales of the BATMAN FOREVER soundtrack to 2 million copies and it even drove sales of Seal's album, which had been released the year before, to a staggering 8 million copies. To top it all off, the song even topped the Billboard Hot 100 for one week. You can check out Seal's Instagram tribute video below:
It's interesting to realize that this song wasn't made specifically for BATMAN FOREVER because it really is so synonymous with it. Joel Schumacher surely had great instincts and with that Seal says that "Kiss From a Rose" is a "song that has pretty much defined my career". Seal closed his message making this heartfelt declaration:
"I owe my career in large part to Joel Schumacher. I just want to say I love you Joel. Thank you very much for everything that you've done for me. One day, we'll all meet again back home."
I'm going to close this out by saying at one of our local bars in the area on Saturday, I played this song on the jukebox and everyone in that place, masked up and all, belted out every single word with no fail. It really is a defining song of an era and while it wasn't made specifically for BATMAN FOREVER, it's definitely a part of that film's unique legacy within the BATMAN franchise.
Are YOU a fan of "Kiss From a Rose?"