Swan song: Why we need to bring back the big movie soundtrack
We’ve hummed to My Heart Will Go On. We know Happy from Despicable Me. Bring back the movie song, it might just help movie sales in a streaming era
Honestly, if it wasn’t for a Bat, we’d never know a Seal. British songwriter Seal (full name: Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel) wrote Kiss from a Rose in 1987. You know the song – haunting melody, absurd lyrics (“Did you know that when it snows, my eyes become large and the light that you shine can’t be seen?”). The story goes that Seal was so embarrassed by his work, he “threw the tape in the corner” when he was done. It was included in his second eponymous debut album in 1994. It sank without a trace.
Kiss from a Rose lay wilting, unloved, for four years. Then, filmmaker Joel Schumacher decided to use it in the 1995 movie Batman Forever, for a love scene between Nicole Kidman and Val Kilmer. They scrapped the dull music video and reshot one, with Seal singing his heart out against the Bat-Signal, and clips from the movie playing alongside.
You know the rest. Kiss from a Rose became a phenomenal hit. Seal went on to release several albums, married (and divorced) supermodel Heidi Klum. But 30 years on, nothing tops his movie-tie-in success.
And, 30 years on, we’re also wondering: What happened to the big blockbuster movie song? The OST (Original Sound Track) was a genre unto its own in the ’90s and ’00s. It’s how the world discovered Celine Dion (My Heart Will Go On, from Titanic), Goo Goo Dolls (Iris, from City of Angels) and Wet Wet Wet (Love is All Around, from Love Actually). Songs created for a film would be promoted alongside it. Videos got prime-time play on MTV. Fans connected When You Say Nothing At All to Notting Hill; Everything I Do to Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. Every nomination for Best Original Song at the Oscars would be something we’d all heard and hummed.
Then, MTV vanished, and so did the big movie number. Can you recall who won best song at the Oscars last week? (It’s El Mal, from Emilia Perez… what?) The movie-music category is now dominated by Disney tunes, James Bond standards and ambient tracks from broody Netflix shows. We’re past the era when Christina Aguilera, Mýa, Lil’ Kim and P!nk signed on for a warble-fest with Lady Marmalade for the Moulin Rouge movie. Now, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper extend their roles in A Star is Born to record the less dramatic Shallow. Post Malone and Swae Lee collab on Sunflower, which fits the mood of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. But it is hardly a standalone hit.
For our own life’s soundtracks, we’re picking from the classics. Prep montage? Alexa, play Eye Of The Tiger from Rocky III. More prep needed? Siri, play Lose Yourself from 8 Mile. Need a pick me up? Cue Happy from Despicable Me or Pretty Woman from Pretty Woman. For broody moments, play David Bowie’s Underground, from Labyrinth; or Aerosmith’s I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing, from Armageddon.
And if you’re still playing Kiss from a Rose in 2025, remember that no one, not even Seal, understood the lasting power of a movie song. In 2015, here’s how he defended his rubbish lyrics on Genius.com: “I have avoided explaining these lyrics for over 25 years. I am not going to start doing it now”.
From HT Brunch, March 08, 2025
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