Killer
by Adamski (featuring Seal)

Album: Liveandirect (1990)
Charted: 1
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Songfacts®:

  • Most Americans got their first listen to Seal when he released his debut album in 1991, but a year earlier, he was the featured vocalist on "Killer," a #1 UK hit for the British house music producer Adamski (Adam Tinley).

    Adamski recorded the song as an instrumental, then looked for a singer to front it. The singer he hired was Sealhenry Samuels, who later became famous as Seal, although he wasn't credited on the single. Adamski said in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, "I met him in a club where he approached me to tell me he was a singer. Just hearing the things he was talking about, I thought he was brilliant, so I became friends with him. He wrote the lyrics to the song and then recorded it in one take."
  • The only mention of the word "killer" comes early in the song when Seal says, "It's the loneliness that's the killer." He goes on to sing about making a connection through love, addressing the solitary brothers and sisters who are closed off.

    Seal, an Englishman of Nigerian descent, had traveled the world and seen the best and worst of humanity across cultures.
  • Seal recorded his own version of "Killer" for his 1991 debut album, which earned him international acclaim when the first single, "Crazy," took off. His version of "Killer" fared poorly when it was released as a single (#8 UK, #100 US), but it stuck as one of his most popular songs and one he plays at most of his live shows.

Comments: 1

  • Dave from Cardiff, WalesThe first of several big hits for Seal between 1990 and 1995 - the others included "Crazy", "A Prayer For The Dying" and "Kiss From A Rose". Adamski's only other big hit was club anthem "NRG", which actually preceded "Killer" and peaked at UK No.12 in March 1990 - a week later, "Killer" entered the UK Top 40, and less than a month after that it was Number 1. No-one knows what happened to Adamski after that, but Seal'r recording career has continued until the present day, though he's struggled in the last decade to equal those releases from the first half of the 1990s. German dance act ATB's (best known for 1999 No.1 "9PM ('Til I Come)" cover version returned the song to the UK Top 10 in 2000, exactly a decade after original...
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