Tame Impala covered Seal’s “Kiss From a Rose” because the song is tied to one of Kevin Parker’s earliest musical memories. Parker told triple j that the Batman Forever soundtrack—the 1995 album that gave the song its commercial second life—was the first CD he bought and that he knew every track on it. His choice for Like A Version was therefore more than an unexpected meeting of psychedelic pop and a 1990s ballad. It was a return to one of his formative records.
A Cover With a Personal History
Triple j published Tame Impala’s performance of “Kiss From a Rose” on October 30, 2026. During the accompanying interview, Parker explained his connection to the Batman Forever soundtrack, a detail also reported by Rolling Stone Australia/New Zealand and JamBase.
That first-CD story is the key to understanding the selection. Parker did not simply choose a famous Seal single that might surprise listeners. He chose a song embedded in an album he had absorbed closely.
For listeners who grew up during the height of the compact disc, soundtracks could function as musical gateways. A single album might place pop stars, alternative bands and unfamiliar artists beside one another, giving young listeners a broader musical education than they expected from a movie tie-in. Parker encountered “Kiss From a Rose” within that kind of collection: not as an isolated hit, but as part of the larger musical world surrounding Batman Forever.
Decades later, performing it with Tame Impala brings that childhood listening experience into Parker’s present work. The cover is autobiographical without needing to retell his life directly. The song choice does the remembering for him.
How Like A Version Frames the Choice
Triple j’s Like A Version asks visiting artists to perform one of their own songs and cover a song they love. That format makes the reason behind a selection almost as important as the performance itself. A cover can reveal a formative influence, an unexpected favorite or a connection that might not be obvious from an artist’s catalog.
Triple j identified the 2026 session as Tame Impala’s fourth appearance on the series, a count also reported by Consequence. Alongside “Kiss From a Rose,” the group performed “Dracula.”
“Dracula” comes from Tame Impala’s fifth album, Deadbeat. Triple j’s Hottest 100 archive and Rolling Stone Australia/New Zealand confirm that the track placed at No. 3 in triple j’s Hottest 100 of 2025.
Putting the two performances together gives the session a natural shape. “Dracula” represents Tame Impala’s current body of work, while “Kiss From a Rose” reaches back to music Parker knew long before his own records existed. One performance looks outward from the present; the other looks back toward an early listening memory.
“Kiss From a Rose” Was Made Through Reinvention
The original recording also lends itself unusually well to reinterpretation. Its familiar sweep was not created in a single step.
In a joint Song Exploder interview, Seal explained that he constructed his early demo by layering his voice to imitate instrumental and orchestral parts. Producer Trevor Horn then developed that foundation into the finished studio recording. Horn described recording with a live band, preserving the demo’s central feeling, changing parts of the arrangement and adding a real string section. He gave a similar account in an interview with the Recording Academy.
That history matters because transformation was part of “Kiss From a Rose” before anyone else covered it. The song moved from Seal’s voice-built demo to an elaborate production shaped with Horn. Its identity was already flexible: an intimate construction expanded into something cinematic and grand.
The Recording Academy’s records credit Seal as the songwriter and Horn as the producer, while Rhino identifies Horn as the producer of Seal’s second self-titled album. In Song Exploder, Seal also described writing the song and creating its original demo. The scale of Horn’s production may be a major part of the record’s sound, but the song began with Seal’s unusual melodic and vocal conception.
Tame Impala’s version continues that chain of reinterpretation. Whatever stylistic labels listeners attach to the performance, its deeper significance comes from Parker placing his own musical language around a song he has known since childhood.
The Song Existed Before Batman Forever
Because “Kiss From a Rose” became so closely associated with Batman Forever, it is easy to assume that Seal recorded it specifically for the film. The chronology tells a different story.
The song first appeared on Seal’s second self-titled album in 1994. Rhino’s history of the album and Song Exploder both confirm that the recording predated its inclusion on the Batman Forever soundtrack.
The film gave the song a much larger platform. After appearing on the 1995 soundtrack, “Kiss From a Rose” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its success continued at the 38th Grammy Awards in 1996, where it won Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, according to both the Recording Academy and Rhino.
That second life makes Parker’s connection especially revealing. His first CD introduced him to a song that was itself being reintroduced to the public. “Kiss From a Rose” was not new when Batman Forever used it, but the soundtrack changed its reach and cultural status.
For many listeners, the film became the doorway into Seal’s recording. Parker was one of those listeners, and his cover now adds another chapter to the song’s history of rediscovery.
Why the First-CD Detail Changes the Performance
Without Parker’s explanation, Tame Impala covering “Kiss From a Rose” might look like an exercise in contrast: a modern psychedelic-pop project taking on one of the most recognizable ballads of the 1990s. The first-CD detail gives the performance a more meaningful center.
Parker was not reaching randomly into pop history. He was revisiting music connected to the beginning of his life as a record buyer. That does not prove that Seal directly shaped every element of Tame Impala’s sound, and Parker did not need to make such a sweeping claim. The confirmed connection is simpler and more personal: he owned the soundtrack, knew it closely and chose one of its defining songs when invited to perform a favorite.
That is what makes the cover resonate. It links the artist Parker became with the listener he once was. In the setting of Like A Version, “Kiss From a Rose” becomes less of a novelty and more of a musical return—one that brings a childhood CD, a blockbuster soundtrack and Tame Impala’s present-day work into the same room.
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