Savage Garden were an Australian pop duo consisting of Darren Hayes on vocals and Daniel Jones on guitar, keyboards, and vocals; they formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1993. They were signed to John Woodruff's talent agency and achieved international success with their No. 1 hit singles "I Want You", "To the Moon and Back" (both 1996), "Truly Madly Deeply" (1997), and "I Knew I Loved You" (1999).
The band's two studio albums, Savage Garden (March 1997) and Affirmation (November 1999), reached No. 1 in Australia and Sweden; they also hit the top ten in the United Kingdom and United States. These albums sold a total of 23 million copies worldwide. The group won a record number of ten ARIA Music Awards in 1997 for their debut album and its related singles. They disbanded at the end of 2001 with Hayes continuing as a solo artist with Jones moving into record production before becoming a real estate agent.
History
1993–1995: Formation
Savage Garden were a spin-off from Red Edge, which had formed in Brisbane as a covers band in 1992 by Daniel Jones on keyboards and rhythm guitar, his brother Oliver Jones on lead guitar and lead vocals, Jamie Sullivan on bass guitar and backing vocals, and his brother Scott Sullivan on drums. In mid-1993 Daniel Jones placed an ad in Brisbane street press Time Off seeking a vocalist for the group. Darren Hayes, who was studying at university and working as a record sales assistant, joined after his audition. Hayes' first performance with Red Edge was in front of an audience of four in Toowoomba. Their set included the group's renditions of "Hurts So Good" (originally by John Cougar, 1982), "Let's Stick Together" (in the style of Bryan Ferry, 1976), "Khe Sanh" (Cold Chisel, 1978) and "Don't Change" (INXS, 1982). The five-piece version of Red Edge played pubs and clubs from southern Queensland to northern New South Wales, while Hayes and Jones started to write original material.
In June 1994, Hayes and Jones left the group to work as a duo, originally as Crush. By year's end, the pair had enough songs for a five-song demo tape under the name Bliss. They sent 150 copies to various record companies around the world. They were renamed Savage Garden after a phrase from The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice: "Beauty was a Savage Garden". John Woodruff (The Angels, Baby Animals, Diesel) provided a positive response; he became their talent manager and negotiated a contract with Roadshow Music/Warner Music. In 1995 they entered the studio to work on their debut album with producer Charles Fisher (Air Supply, Moving Pictures, 1927). Woodruff financed the recordings by drawing on his home's mortgage and taking loans in exchange for also becoming the group's record label representative and their music publisher.
1996–1998: Debut album
In May 1996, Savage Garden released their debut single "I Want You" under Roadshow Music. It peaked at No. 4 on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) singles chart, while on the 1996 End of Year Singles Chart it was highest placed by an Australian artist at No. 12. On 30 September of that year they received their first ARIA award nomination, in the category Breakthrough Artist – Single, for "I Want You". The duo attended the ceremony and presented an award. Their local success drew interest from international labels and they were signed for overseas releases with Columbia Records in late November. The label's executives had Woodruff arrange for Hayes and Jones to reside in a Kings Cross hotel for 8 months, where they wrote songs for a debut album to be released in 1997. Each day the duo and Woodruff would travel to Fisher's home to plan their work. Also in November 1996 a second single, "To the Moon and Back", appeared, which reached No. 1 in January 1997 in Australia.
"I Want You" was released in North America in February 1997, where it peaked at No. 4 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 and by April had achieved gold status according to Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It became their first number-one hit, reaching that spot on RPMs Top 100 Singles chart in Canada in June 1997. "Truly Madly Deeply", the band's third Australian single, was released in March, which also reached No. 1 and became their signature song. Also in that month, the duo's debut album, Savage Garden, entered the Australian charts at No. 1 and peaked there for a total of 19 non-consecutive weeks.