Love Song For a Vampire – From the 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this Annie’s highest ranking non-album song. It’s taken, of course, from Francis Ford Coppola’s Academy Award-winning film and plays over the film’s closing credits. A love song that benefits from its lush cinematic scope, the track was paired with “Little Bird” as a double-A single that found major success in England (reaching No. 3) and around the world. Surprisingly, it was not nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards despite a push by the studio.

One evening in early 1993, a disillusioned 12-year-old boy with no interest in music was flicking through the TV channels in the hope of finding some sport to watch. But something out of the ordinary caught his attention. A ghoulish looking lady with an impressively symmetrical centre-parting emerging from a crypt and singing the most captivating, ethereal song those ears had ever experienced. A musical love affair was born.

Many years on, my trembling heart still beats like a drum at the thought of that Top Of The Pops performance and the pre-Internet voyage of discovery that went with it. I recall tuning in to all manner of radio stations afterwards in the hope of hearing it again and capturing it on cassette, with my finger hovering over the Record button until my luck was in. I remember trying to decipher the lyrics and writing them all down on a notepad. And then taking a sudden interest in the UK singles chart as surely this, the song of songs, has to conquer all in its path.

I scraped together some pocket money to buy the single on cassette from my local Woolworths in Pinner, North London, hoping to help propel the song beyond third spot in the chart. But what was this? A Double A side? With a song about a bird? Very soon after, the scary crypt woman from Top Of The Pops was sucking the life out of her rivals at the Brit Awards with her album Diva, which required yet more strategic raiding of the piggy bank to acquire. And then, to cut a very long story short, here I am writing this article.

Listening to the record now, I can see what set the spirit of that unhappy 12-year-old boy free. It was an escape to another world through a haunting song that still sounds like no other and with a fascinating structure that made it stand out from other chart music at the time. Love Song’s soothing sounds initially draw you in, like the most seductive of vampires. And once you’re under its spell, out come the fangs as it bursts into glorious, impassioned drama. Finally, it leaves your chilly cadaver with a warming embrace as it heads off deep into the night. Magnificent.

– Ben Rawson-Jones

Is this the most chilling or haunting song that Annie Lennox has ever written?

The beating heart throughout the song gives a hypnotic beat that draws you deep into the song, every single time i listen to this song it brings shivers to my spine.

I have always enjoyed Annie’s soundtrack work, and her songs written for films have featured highly in my list, and i think I surprised myself when working through my top 5, that this kept on creeping to the top spot.

The lyrics are both beuatiful and painful at the same time, I would love to know how Annie got herself into the character of Dracula to reach down so far into her soul to write these words, I would love to know if it was a quick song to write, or whether it was a labour of love, had she seen Bram Stokers film before she wrote the song, so many questions. I also wonder if Annie’s own personal tragedy with her son Daniel had any influence on the lyrics, I found a few heart breaking stories about this song, and how people have found comfort in it in such tragic circumstances, or it has been a trigger to allow grief to be expressed.

This is Ryan’s story : “My partner and I lost our son, he was born too soon and his lungs had not developed enough for him to be able to breath; so he was born and then died. We buried our son. My partner (Danyeil) cried her heart out for weeks/months, she was devastated, but I could not cry, I could not grieve, I could not accept what had happened… One night I stayed up to watch the Dracula film and this song was on at the end, I fell to the floor crying, I cried like a baby, a grown man crying on the floor like iv’e never cried before! After that I began to come to terms with what had happened and was able to move on.”

Annie’s performance on Top Of The Pops has to be one of the most theatrical productions they ever saw being staged, Annie was heavily pregnant at the time of the recording of the main video and the TOPT appearance. I was only sad the song was not used more in the film.

So painful, so romantic, so chilling, so haunting, so beautiful, so enchanting, so hypnotic.

The song is all about eternal love, and that is the reason this song hits my #1 spot.

Steve Gayler

 COLLECTABLE RECORD

There are a few collectables for the single, the soundtrack album itself on vinyl is also highly collectable, and you can see more here. There was also the December 2018 reissue and remastered expanded 3CD set that sold out and now sells for over $90 however, I have selected the USA promo CD as I have always loved the picture disc CD.

Record ID	Image	Format	Release Details	Note	Click for more info
0460 UP2017-11	'	CD Single	Artist : Annie Lennox Title : Love Song For A Vampire Format : CD Single Label : Arista Cat No. : ASCD-2507 Country : The USA Promo : Yes	1 Track Promo

MEMORABILIA

Here we have a few adverts and posters for the song and the film, I would have loved a metal Dracula logo pin badge.

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