"Love Song for a Vampire" is a song composed and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter

Annie Lennox Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the New wave music, new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician D ...

. It was recorded for

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five A ...

's 1992 film, '' Bram Stoker's Dracula'' based on the 1897 gothic horror novel, where it plays during the end credits. Released in February 1993 as a

double A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

with " Little Bird" in Ireland, the United Kingdom and several other countries in Europe, the single was a hit, peaking at number three on the UK and

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are bas ...

s. "Love Song for a Vampire" by itself reached number four in Spain and number 10 in France.

Critical reception

In their review of the soundtrack for '' Bram Stoker's Dracula'', ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' wrote, "The highlight and probable single is the only vocal entry on the album, Annie Lennox's haunting, romantic 'Love Song for a Vampire'." Mike Ragogna from

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

noted that in the song, "Lennox sings the poem, 'Once I had the rarest rose that ever deigned to bloom, cruel winter chilled the bud and stole my flower too soon', slyly transporting us from

Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author who is celebrated for his 1897 Gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and busine ...

's world to that of

Anne Rice Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien; October 4, 1941 – December 11, 2021) was an American author of gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Christian literature. She was best known for her series of novels ''The Vampire Chronicles''. B ...

's without our realizing." In his weekly UK chart commentary,

James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a music writer and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worked on air ...

deemed it a "gorgeous contribution" to the movie. Alan Jones from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' described it as "a simple, mournful, relentless and (appropriately?) haunting song."

Music video

The accompanying

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "Love Song for a Vampire" was directed by British director

Sophie Muller Sophie Luise Elisabeth Muller (born 31 January 1962) is a British music video director who has directed more than 300 music videos. She won a Grammy Award for Annie Lennox's 1992 ''Diva'' video album, and an MTV Video Music Award for Lennox's son ...

. It features

, seen in a dark garden very similar to

Lucy Westenra Lucy Westenra is a fictional character in the 1897 novel ''Dracula'' by Bram Stoker. The 19-year-old daughter of a wealthy family, she is Mina Murray's best friend and Count Dracula's first English victim. She subsequently transforms into a vam ...

's in the film, and wearing a similar white dress. As she sings, several excerpts from the film are shown, and the video ends as what appears to be holy light shines upon her, very similar to what happens during Dracula's death at the film's end.

Release

In the UK, the song was the bigger hit of the double-A sided single with Lennox's track " Little Bird" from her album ''

Diva Diva (; ) is the Latin word for a goddess. It has often been used to refer to a celebrated woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, theatre, cinema, fashion and popular music. If referring to an actress, the meaning of ''diva'' is clo ...

''. It reached number three on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in early 1993, while in the US, it reached number 24 on the ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks chart. It reappeared in 1995 on the UK CD single "

A Whiter Shade of Pale "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is a song by the English rock band Procol Harum that was issued as their debut record on 12 May 1967. The single reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart on 8 June and stayed there for six weeks. Without much promotion, i ...

", alongside Lennox's covers of

the Psychedelic Furs The Psychedelic Furs are a post-punk band founded in London in February 1977. Led by lead vocalist Richard Butler and his brother Tim Butler on bass guitar, the Psychedelic Furs are one of the many acts spawned from the British post-punk scene ...

' "

Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

" and Blondie's " (I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear".

Track listings

All tracks were written by Annie Lennox unless otherwise noted. CD: Arista / 07822 12522 2 (US) * The final three tracks were recorded live for

MTV Unplugged ''MTV Unplugged'' is an American television series on MTV showcasing musical artists usually playing acoustic instruments. The show aired regularly from 1989 to 1999 and less frequently from 2000 to 2009, when it was usually billed as ''MTV Un ...

at the

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...

Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approximat ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, 3 July 1992. CD: BMG / 74321 13383 2 (UK)

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 1990s ballads 1992 songs 1993 singles Annie Lennox songs Arista Records singles Columbia Records singles Music videos directed by Sophie Muller Pop ballads Song recordings produced by Stephen Lipson Songs about vampires Songs written by Annie Lennox Songs written for films Dracula