Historical Events  Music
Seal

Alternate:
"Kissed by a rose on the grave"

Current:
"Kissed by a rose on the grey"

Seal: Kiss from a rose

Seal's 1994 hit 'Kiss from a rose' was used in the Batman Forever soundtrack.

There's something odd about the lyrics, though.

It mentions in the first line a greying tower, and is full of imagery surrounding color. So the main refrain, which many people are sure is '...kissed by a rose on the grave' is seen today as ''...kissed by a rose on the grey"

Baby, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey
Ooh, the more I get of you, the stranger it feels, yeah
Now that your rose is in bloom
A light hits the gloom on the grey

Made Seal a household name

Seal wrote the song in 1987 but actually claimed he "felt embarrassed" by it and didn't present it for years to his producer, He wrote it while he was destitute and living in a squat on a cheap 4-track cassette machine. Trevor Horn, who instantly knew it was a hit. Horn re-recorded it and it went on to become a massive hit selling 8 million copies. It's use in the Batman Forever movie was supposed to be during a love scene, but it was switched to be played over the end credits and this is thought to help catapult it to worldwide fame.

Seal has never revealed exactly what the song is about, so as usual there is much speculation. The themes suggested range from cocaine, to a lost love, to someone musing on just growing old.

Misheard lyrics?

Mandela Effects around misheard lyrics are tricky. No one is seriously saying Jimi Hendrix sang "''Scuse me while I kiss this guy" in Purple Haze. For it to be an ME, it has to have been believed by many people that the original lyric has changed. There is evidence this is the case here.