You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishikesh Herway.

Seal is a Grammy-winning singer and songwriter from England. His song, Kiss from a Rose, was first released in 1994 on his second album.

It was a huge hit, thanks in part to being featured in the movie Batman Forever. It landed on the top 10 charts in multiple countries and eventually went quadruple platinum in the US.

And at the 1996 Grammys it won Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

But Kiss from a Rose becoming a hit wasn't a foregone conclusion. Seal almost didn't record it. And when it was first released, it didn't make much of a splash.

But for this episode, the 250th episode of Song Exploder. Seal and his longtime collaborator, producer Trevor Horn, told me the story of what it took to bring Kiss from a Rose to life.

My name is Seal and I'm a record and artist. I wrote Kiss from a Rose around, it would have been 86, 87. I was living in a squat. I didn't have any money and I was just basically getting my act together trying to figure out who I was musically.

And Kiss from a Rose came out of that period when you sort of do things not for any other purpose than because that's what's coming out of you.

I had no experience in the studio in a proper recording studio at that point. And so I didn't know the rules. And it started out as a bit of an experiment because I just got this piece of record and apparatus called a four track.

And I was trying to figure out how to use it. I couldn't play an instrument at the time. But I tried to imagine what an orchestra would do and came up with these parts.

So I was essentially trying to mimic a flute, pizzerca, violins and a few other instruments, essentially an orchestra. And so I ended up recording about 16 or 17 tracks of vocals, trying to figure out how to work this machine and everything was impulsive and instinctive.

And at the end of the day doing it, I had this thing called Kiss from a Rose. But I remember kind of listening to the tape and kind of tossed the tape to one side because I wasn't particularly proud of it.

Later on, we'd had some success with a song called Killer. That was quite popular.

Killer is a song by the English DJ Adamski that featured seal on guest vocals. It came out in 1990 and was a number one hit in the UK.

And so I'd been to see a few different record companies. I remember walking into ZTT records. And as I was walking through the corridors, I was looking at all of the plaques on the wall and there were bands like propaganda, Frankie goes to Hollywood, Grace Jones, slave to the rhythm.

And I remember looking at all of these records and going, oh, I like that record. Oh, yeah, I really like that record. Oh, and it was only then that I made the connection that Trevor Horn had produced all of these.

My name is Trevor Horn and I'm an old record producer. My late wife was Jill Sinclair. At the time Jill and I were kind of like a team. Jill was my wife, but she was also my manager.

And we started a record label together, which was ZTT before I actually met seal. She said, I've found him. I've found what I've been looking for.

I remember the first meeting it very clearly, as if it were yesterday. Jill looked at me and she said, I'll never forget that she said, right, young man, let me tell you why this is your home.

And I walked out of there and I remember telling my manager at the time that that's where I wanted to be. And so Trevor and I eventually got together and my life changed.

I remember this friend of mine would always tell Trevor, say, you know, seals got this rose song. You should get him to play to you. And Trevor would keep saying to me, what's this song that Paul keeps going on about this rose song? And I'd be, I don't know, I don't know.

And I just passed it off as being nothing.

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