Savage Garden
In mid 1995, two young Brisbane men joined forces to create Australia’s biggest and most successful musical duo, Savage Garden, breaking records and winning awards and acclaim along the way.
On Friday, 8th January 2016 a new compilation album – Savage Garden: The Singles – went on sale in stores and via download. Savage Garden: The Singles features all the band’s singles, notably including a bonus track of previously unreleased demo “She”, an essential compilation commemorating the band’s 20th Anniversary of their first single release, “I Want You”. See below for the full album tracklisting.
When the master recordings were being transferred, the previously unreleased demo of a 1994 song called She was uncovered among some multi-track cassette based recordings. As a special treat for their fans and friends SHE (1994 Demo) was made available via Savage Garden’s Facebook page and website and appears on Savage Garden: The Singles as a bonus track. The recording features Daniel on piano and Darren’s signature, passionate vocals.
Darren Hayes said, “It’s a long time ago, but my recollection is I was writing about the relationship that I have, and continue to have, with the women in my life. From my Sister to my Mother and all the friends and the wonderful female relationships in my life. I know I’m indebted to these incredibly strong women who loved me and taught me what it was like to be strong and succeed in a world where you sometimes feel underestimated.”
Daniel Jones added, “From memory I think we just sat down and literally wrote it together in my parents’ house in Brisbane. I remember my mother really liked the track – the innocence and raw beauty of it. It’s very pro-female song so I think a lot of girls will relate to how powerful it is for them. I think that was probably the biggest reason why my Mum really took to this particular song”.
Savage Garden is one of the most successful duos in pop music history and among the most successful Australian recording artists of all time with sales in excess of 20 million albums. They hold the Guinness Book of World Records for winning an unprecedented 10 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Awards in one year (1997). In addition, they are the reigning record-holders for the longest number of weeks on the Monitor/Billboard Adult Contemporary Airplay charts in the US for their singles: I Knew I Loved You (124 weeks) and Truly, Madly, Deeply (123 weeks). Savage Garden is one of only two Australian bands to have ever had two #1 singles in the US.
The beauty of the first, self-titled, Savage Garden album was how naive it all was. Songs written in suburban bedrooms became global anthems; the intimacy and innocence of their tunes was immediately genuine and untouched by corporate fingerprints. It was homemade, world-class music.
Savage Garden went on to dominate the world, song by song, with hit singles including To the Moon and Back, Truly Madly Deeply, Break Me Shake Me and of course, with an added chic-a-cherry-cola, I Want You.
Savage Garden’s second album, Affirmation, was made with a skyscraper-weight of expectation knowing that, unlike their debut, the world was listening and the band delivered another outstanding success. The flawless run of singles continued with The Animal Song, I Knew I Loved You, Affirmation, Hold Me and The Best Thing all becoming radio staples.
It was following Affirmation that Daniel Jones retreated from the spotlight and Darren Hayes continued as a solo artist. Both men have politely declined increasingly lucrative reformation offers choosing to let the songs continue to ably represent them instead.
In hindsight, Savage Garden left a short but perfectly formed legacy. They followed up the debut nobody thought they could better, they sold millions right at the tail end of the period where people still paid for music they loved, they shared their highly personal songs with audiences on stages around the world.
Savage Garden: The Singles was released on Friday, 8th January through Sony Music
SHE (1994 Demo) can be streamed HERE
Tracklisting
1. I Want You
2. To The Moon and Back
3. Truly Madly Deeply
4. Break Me Shake Me
5. Universe
6. All Around Me
7. Santa Monica
8. Tears of Pearls
9. The Animal Song
10. I Knew I Loved You
11. Crash and Burn
12. Affirmation
13. Chained to You
14. Hold Me
15. The Best Thing
16. She (1994 Demo)
