Songfacts®:

• When introducing this song in concert, Seal has said that he wrote it after having a few run-ins with death, which ended up being a good thing because it made him confront his worst fears. It's a prayer for the dying in the sense that he's addressing those who weren't so lucky; Seal played with fire and didn't get burned, but many others didn't. The opening line, "Fearless people, careless needle," implies he's talking about drug use.
• "Prayer For The Dying" was the first single from Seal's second album, which like his first, is titled Seal. It was a modest hit in the summer of 1994, but in America, the next two singles - "Newborn Friend" and "Don't Cry" - didn't chart and it looked like the album would peter out. Then the song "Kiss From A Rose" was extracted from the album and used in the 1995 movie Batman Forever. It went to #1 that August, over a year after "Prayer For The Dying" was issued.
• The video was directed by Paul Boyd, who also did Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" and Sting's "Desert Rose." It shows Seal performing the song in a white circular room filled with doors he never opens.
• Seal wrote this song with his guitarist, Gus Isidore. It was produced by Trevor Horn of Yes and Buggles fame; Seal was signed to Horn's label, ZTT Records.