The single’s success made Seal hot property, resulting in a record-company bidding war to get his signature he ended up rejecting the majors and instead joined producer Trevor Horn’s art-house label, ZTT, which had been home to Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Propaganda and Grace Jones in the 80s. The husky-voiced London singer had first appeared on the pop radar in 1990, when he provided a memorable vocal cameo on Adamski’s chart-topping dance track, Killer. The Who’s Pete Townsend cringed whenever he heard Pinball Wizard while Oasis’ outspoken singer, Liam Gallagher, loathed his band’s iconic anthem Wonderwall, once confessing to an interviewer: “I can’t fucking stand that fucking song.” And then there is Seal, who has also had an uneasy relationship with arguably his most famous hit, Kiss From A Rose, despite it causing his career to blossom in the mid-90s.
Kurt Cobain ended up detesting Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, while Led Zeppelin’s frontman, Robert Plant, became weary of Stairway To Heaven. There’s a long history in rock and pop of artists who grow to hate some of the songs that made them famous.