Savage Garden’s 10 greatest songs, ranked

12 September 2024, 17:03

Savage Garden only made two albums before calling it quits. Picture: Columbia Records

By Thomas Edward

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Their star burned brightly at the end of the nineties.

But Savage Garden's success was all too brief, given the Australian duo broke up soon after they became a global pop phenomenon.

Their sound borrowed from dance-pop and soft rock from eras before, but Savage Garden created songs that felt inherently of the decade and both timeless.

Thanks to Darren Hayes' beautiful balladry, the duo rose to fame around the world at the same time as their native Australia, blowing up with a series of hit singles that showcased his gorgeous voice and poetic songwriting.

After just eight years together however, Hayes and bandmate Daniel Jones split, saying their working relationship had become too strained.

In the years since, there have been frequent calls for Savage Garden to reunite, but no matter the clamour from their fanbase it doesn't look likely.

As recently as 2020, Darren said: "Imagine if you had come out and survived a really dysfunctional and toxic relationship, and then for years later people would ask you to please get back in that relationship".

He shut down the idea on many occasions prior to that, famously declaring in 2007: "I once said I’d only do it if it cured cancer, and that’s still how I feel."

That's that then. But at least we still have their sumptuous songs to listen to on repeat - here are the ten greatest Savage Garden songs, ranked:

'Crash And Burn'

Savage Garden - Crash and Burn (Official Video)

Featuring on the duo's second album, Affirmation, Darren Hayes later revealed that 'Crash And Burn' was one of his own favourite Savage Garden songs.
"Musically it’s a dear song to me," Hayes said in 2017, "because it’s all the words I wished someone would have said to me during the period after the first Savage Garden album."
It was also the final ever Savage Garden song to chart on the US Billboard charts before they called it a day the following year.
'Two Beds And A Coffee Machine’

Two Beds And A Coffee Machine

The b-side to 2000 single 'Crash And Burn' showed Hayes at his most vulnerable as a songwriter.
'Two Beds And A Coffee Machine' was an autobiographical song about his childhood experiences of domestic violence and his "alcoholic, wife-beating dad and how me and my mum travelled from motel to motel with me with a black eye", telling the story of his mum leaving home and knowing she'd have to go back as she couldn't survive on her own.
"This was coming out in a period when Spice Girls, NSync and MTV's TRL were huge. I'm proud that in the midst of it all – manufactured and often contrived pop music – we were allowed to write songs like that which were wise beyond our years," he later recalled.
Though the song wasn't released as an official single, it set Savage Garden apart as a pop band with lyrical heft and emotional weight.
'Break Me Shake Me'

Savage Garden - Break Me Shake Me

The fourth single from Savage Garden's self-titled debut album is in fact a tribute to Hayes' own pop idol: Michael Jackson.
With lyrics detailing actual arguments he'd have with fellow pupils in school ("She was a Madonna fan / I was a Michael Jackson fan"), Hayes would often perform a mash-up with Jackson's music and 'Break Me Shake Me' when performing live.
Although the single didn't repeat their charting success in the UK and US, it was a top ten hit in their native Australia after its 1997 release.
'Universe'

Savage Garden - Universe

In the sensual, R&B-influenced 1997 ballad 'Universe', Darren Hayes is figuring out what his needs, identity, and desires are inside his romantic relationship.
He later mused: "It was when the internet first exploded and chat rooms first exploded and you could have this kind of identity and you could hide behind an avatar. That you could express what you really felt. 'Universe' is talking about that. It's a song about second-guessing your own emotions and just really young, youthful love, innocent, naive love, and insecurity, which we were all buckets full of."
Inspired by Hayes's love of Janet Jackson and Smokey Robinson, 'Universe' became a hit single and fan favourite for Savage Garden in their home country.
'The Animal Song'

Savage Garden - The Animal Song (Video Version)

'The Animal Song' saw Savage Garden dip their top into the world of movie soundtracks, penning the song for the 1999 rom-com The Other Sister which starred Juliette Lewis and Diane Keaton.
Hayes later revealed that the pop duo passed up the opportunity to write a song for screwball rom-com Runaway Bride starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in favour of "the film that flopped".
Nevertheless, there were positives that came from the experience - it was the first time they worked with Mariah Carey producer Walter Afanasieff who produced Savage Garden's second and final album, Affirmation.
'The Animal Song' was also a hit for the duo, hitting the top 20 in the UK and the US whilst peaking at number three in Australia.
'Affirmation'

Savage Garden - Affirmation

'Affirmation' became an incredibly personal song for Darren Hayes' after the song became the lead single and title of their 1999 second album.
Without mentioning the word in the song at all, Hayes addresses the things in life that matter to Savage Garden: family, love, kindness, karma, and inner beauty.
It also heavily suggested his true sexuality - he was married to a woman at the time, but thought his being gay was an open secret.
"I wrote the lyric 'I believe you can't control or choose your sexuality' in the title track of Affirmation, and I performed the song on The Jay Leno Show and intentionally winked at the camera on that line," Hayes later told Billboard.
"I was waiting to be outed, but I think because I didn't deny being gay. The press were very, very kind to me. I like to think they knew I was a good person and I wasn't ready to hold a press conference about it."
Despite fears of being shunned for his sexuality, 'Affirmation' was still a huge hit for Savage Garden, peaking at number eight in the UK.
'I Knew I Loved You'

Savage Garden - I Knew I Loved You (Official Video)

Savage Garden had a knack for penning ballads bound to play played at weddings, and 'I Knew I Loved You' was just that.
Featuring on their 1999 album Affirmation, the song describes finally meeting your one true love having known your paths would eventually cross.
Hayes was reluctant to write another big-hitting ballad, preferring to be more truthful with his writing. Nevertheless, 'I Knew I Loved You' became just that.
It topped the US Billboard charts for a total of four weeks before being knocked off by a similarly soppy ballad in Lonestar's 'Amazed'.
'I Want You'

Savage Garden - I Want You

Despite having no clue what "chic-a-cherry cola" is, Savage Garden's sumptuous slice of dance-pop in 'I Want You' established them as a new force in global pop music.
It also saw Darren Hayes address his fantasies of being openly gay, despite being married at the time of the song's release.
He later told Apple Music: "It's based on a dream that I had where I fell in love with a boy. And when I woke up, I missed him. I didn't know how I would ever feel that feeling again."
"I had this almost beautiful melancholy, romantic grief. I remembered everything about this boy who I'd never met. The smell, the kiss, the feeling, the butterflies in my tummy, all that stuff."
"And so I spent about a week mourning that feeling. I used to think, 'Maybe if I go to sleep, I'll see him again.'"
Originally released on a small label called Roadshow Music in their native Australia, 'I Want You' caused such a buzz that major labels came calling, and the single eventually made its way to number four on the US Billboard charts in 1996.
'To The Moon And Back'

Savage Garden - To The Moon & Back (Extended Version)

Savage Garden's song 'To The Moon And Back' about an alienated girl protecting herself from heartache in her own fantasy world was strangely inspired by the sci-fi classic Blade Runner.
Darren Hayes later revealed: "It's such a beautiful, haunting piece of music. I was a big science fiction fan - I loved Blade Runner. I wrote it from that point of view, or the idea of what it means to be human. That idea of yearning to express your emotions and your feelings and for that to be legitimised."
Only their second ever single, 'To The Moon And Back' rose to number three in the UK.
in an era of teen idols like Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys, Savage Garden positioned themselves as a pop group with sophistication. They certainly achieved that.
"I wanted people to understand that yes this is a pop band," Hayes later admitted, "but it was an intellectual pop band."
'Truly Madly Deeply'

Savage Garden - Truly Madly Deeply

What else could it be? Savage Garden's greatest song is undoubtedly their gorgeous tear-jerking ballad 'Truly Madly Deeply'.
Darren Hayes recalled how he wrote the song during a period of being lonely in a new city, and desperately broke: "I would sleep a lot of the weekend away just to save money."
"I'd only just gotten married and I was away from my wife. I was a 22-23 year-old baby in this new marriage, I'd never lived outside of my own city before and was genuinely just lost and sad. I wrote that song for her, about my wife and how much I missed her," he later told Apple Music.
Thanks to his beautiful lyrics, Hayes would no longer be broke once 'Truly Madly Deeply' hit the airwaves.
It rose right to the top of the US Billboard charts, becoming the first Australian act to achieve that feat in fifteen years.
The ballad very nearly never made the cut however, as Hayes later revealed: "It sat on the bottom of the pile of our demos for the entire eight-month recording process until the eve of the last day."
"I sat alone, at the Bayswater Cafe in Sydney, and completely re-wrote the chorus you hear today over a cup of coffee. I sang it the next day and the rest is history."