Tame Impala Cover Seal's 'Kiss From a Rose' for Triple J's 'Like a Version'

Tame Impala have covered Seal's "Kiss From a Rose" for the Australian radio station Triple J, delivering a version faithful to the original with textured, harmonized vocals and a sense of wonder in frontman Kevin Parker's voice. The recording forms part of Triple J's long-running "Like a Version" cover series.

Parker's guitar strumming gives the song an extra-dreamlike quality and marks it unmistakably as Tame Impala, despite the band's closeness to the source material. The only real point of departure arrives around the 2:38 mark, when Parker sings "All I want's a f***ing kiss from a rose" — a diversion he greets with a smirk. Nobody objected to the expletive, including Triple J.

Why did Kevin Parker choose this song?

In an interview with Triple J, Parker called "Kiss From a Rose," which originally appeared on the Batman Forever soundtrack, "a childhood favorite." He reminisced about watching the film in the theater, and said the soundtrack in particular left a mark on him.

"It was the first CD I bought," Parker said. "So I knew every song on it. I used to listen to it back to back."

The choice was not easy. Parker and his bandmates initially thought the song might be too hard to cover, given Seal's singular instrument.

"Once we accepted that none of us sound like Seal — like, none of us have the insane voice that he does, once we were content with, 'Oh, it's us, it's a bunch of Aussie blokes doing it' — then I think we were at peace with it," Parker explained. "We're gonna do the best we can."

What else did the band record?

Alongside the cover, Tame Impala recorded a new version of their own track "Dracula," taken from their album Deadbeat, which came out last year.

The "Dracula" connection extends into another recent conversation. Parker discussed his musical inspirations in an interview with Blackpink's Jennie for Rolling Stone's Musicians on Musicians series. When Parker asked her what her favorite duet was, she first named the remix of "Dracula" she recorded, then thought of another.

"I don't know why, I'm thinking Madonna and Justin Timberlake right now, '4 Minutes,'" Jennie said. "There's so many."

"Does Fleetwood Mac count, I wonder?" Parker replied. "Because they were singing duet most of the time. I love Fleetwood Mac, if you can't tell."

What does this change for listeners? The cover and the reworked "Dracula" arrive as Tame Impala continue circulating material from Deadbeat, and the Triple J session gives fans both a nostalgia-driven tribute and a fresh take on the band's own catalog.