"Truly Madly Deeply" is a song by Australian pop duo

Savage Garden Savage Garden was 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 int ...

, released in March 1997 as the third single from their self-titled debut album (1997) by Roadshow and

Warner Music Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and the third-largest in the gl ...

. It won the 1997 ARIA Music Award for both Single of the Year and Highest Selling Single and was nominated for Song of the Year. Written by bandmates

Darren Hayes Darren Stanley Hayes (born 8 May 1972) is an Australian singer, songwriter, music producer and composer. He was the singer of the pop duo Savage Garden from their 1993 establishment until their disbandment in 2001. Their 1997 album '' Savage Ga ...

and Daniel Jones, the song is a reworking of a song called "Magical Kisses" that the pair wrote together during the recording of their debut album. The song reached 1 in Australia, Canada, and the United States; in the latter country, ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' ranked it the most successful song of all time on their

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

chart. Two music videos were filmed for the track: one for its original Australian release and another for the international market, shot in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France. In November 2019, the song was added to the

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...

's selection of recordings. The songs added to the list provide a snapshot of Australian life and have "cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance and relevance".

Background and composition

Having got their breakthrough with the single " I Want You",

and Daniel Jones were sent to Sydney for eight months to record material for a debut album. For Hayes, it was his first time in life being away from his family and his native

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. The longing for his family and his then-wife pushed him towards writing a song that would express those feelings. The sheet music for "Truly Madly Deeply" indicates the key of

C major C major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and its parallel min ...

with a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

of 83 bpm.

Versions

There are two versions of the song. The first was made available on the Australian version of the group's album, whereas the second version appears on the release of the album in Europe and America. This version was composed in 1997 and features a

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

track instead of the more acoustic-sounding music featured on the Australian version. The European version also features on the group's greatest hits compilation, "Truly Madly Completely" and "The Singles".

Critical reception

Larry Flick Larry Flick is an American journalist, former dance music columnist, single reviewer, and Senior Talent Editor for ''Billboard'' magazine, where he worked for 14 years. Now he produces and hosts Sirius XM radio shows. Flick started in the musi ...

from ''

'' wrote that "this is the single that should help affirm that

is more than a

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with ...

." He described the song as a "percussive ballad" and complimented it for revealing "vocal skills and charisma not previously displayed". He noted further that "with its romantic lyrics and plush, guitar-etched instrumentation, this song 'truly madly deeply' deserves as much airplay as the top 40 programmers can heap upon it." Insider described it as "a truly sweet song, written out of homesickness; this love ballad has total staying power and is still played over 20 years later." Pan-European magazine ''

Music & Media ''Music & Media'' was a pan-European magazine for radio, music and entertainment. It was published for the first time in 1984 as ''Eurotipsheet'', but in 1986 it changed name to ''Music & Media''. It was originally based in Amsterdam, but later m ...

'' stated, "This Australian duo possesses a fine knack for writing excellent mainstream pop with top flight radio appeal." They added, "This track ..is no exception—as proven by its recent two-week stay at the top of ''

''s Hot 100 Singles chart." A reviewer from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

'' gave "Truly Madly Deeply" three out of five, remarking that the song had been successful in both Australia and the US, while the UK "is a little less keen. But this luscious pop ballad should attract airplay and sales." In 2018, ''Stacker'' placed the song at No. 21 on their list of the "Best pop songs of the last 25 years," noting it as "a quintessential '90s pop song". In 2019, they ranked it No. 9 on their list of the "Best 90s pop songs".

Chart performance

The song became the duo's second No. 1 in their native Australia. The song also reached No. 1 in Canada. It reached No. 2 in Norway, Sweden, Austria and Ireland, and went top ten in France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK. In 1998, the song was certified gold in France, for sales of 200,000 copies. In May 2001 the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), as part of its 75th Anniversary celebrations, named "Truly Madly Deeply" as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time. The song entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart at No. 26 on 6 December 1997, It peaked at No. 1 for two weeks in January 1998 and lingered for a full year on the chart. It became the first song in the chart's history to spend its first 52 weeks inside the top 30. The song spent half a year in the top 10. It reached No. 2 on the Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks chart and entered the top 10 on the Rhythmic Top 40 chart. On the ''Billboard'' Top 40 Mainstream chart, the song reached No. 1 for one week on 31 January before dropping to No. 2 as

Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion (born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Power Ballads", Dion's powerful, technically skilled vocals and commercially successful works have had ...

assumed the top spot with the theme to the hit film ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...

'', "

My Heart Will Go On "My Heart Will Go On" is a song performed by Canadian singer Celine Dion, used as the theme for the 1997 film '' Titanic''. It was composed by James Horner, with lyrics by Will Jennings, and produced by Horner, Walter Afanasieff and Simon F ...

". Savage Garden's single held at No. 2 for 10 weeks before returning to the No. 1 spot on the week of 18 April. The song eventually set a record for the most weeks of any single in history on the US

Hot Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

chart. In 1998, the song logged 11 weeks at No. 1 on this chart, but its full chart span lasted 123 weeks. That record would stand for just under two years, when another of the group's ballads spent its 124th week on the chart. The song was "

I Knew I Loved You "I Knew I Loved You" is a song by Australian Pop music, pop duo Savage Garden, released through Village Roadshow, Roadshow Music and Columbia Records as the second single from their second and final studio album, ''Affirmation (Savage Garden al ...

", from the album '' Affirmation''. The song was so popular that it re-entered ''Billboard's''

Hot Singles Sales The Hot Singles Sales, also known as the Hot 100 Singles Sales and the POS chart, was a music chart released weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine listing each week's best-selling physical singles in the United States, such as CD singles, vinyl single ...

chart in March 2002 and—four and a half years after its release—again became a U.S. Top 30 bestseller, remaining on that chart until late July 2002. The original version logged its final week on the Hot Adult Contemporary Recurrents chart on 17 June 2006. This makes it the No. 1 ''Billboard'' Adult Contemporary song of all time. In 2008, the song was listed at No. 30 on ''Billboard''s Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs.

Music video

Two music videos were made for the song. The original Australian video, which presents Hayes with long hair, features the band in a white room with several other people. Hayes is on a red sofa singing the song while Daniel performs on the piano. It was directed by Tony McGrath. The video used for the European market, which presents Hayes with short hair, was filmed in

, France. It was directed by Adolfo Doring. The video depicts the story of two lovers, a young man and a lady, who have been separated by circumstances. The woman arrives in Paris at

Gare de l'Est The Gare de l'Est (; English: "Station of the East" or "East station"), officially Paris Est, is one of the seven large mainline railway station termini in Paris, France. It is located in the 10th arrondissement, not far southeast from the Ga ...

station, in search of her lover, who is also waiting for her. He is wandering in various places within the

Montmartre Montmartre ( , , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement of Paris, 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Rive Droite, Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for its a ...

area, including the Soleil de la Butte restaurant. In between the scenes involving the two lovers, Hayes can be seen walking around Paris, in locations such as the

Place de la Concorde The Place de la Concorde (; ) is a public square in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. It was the s ...

and the Jardin des Tuileries. He is singing, thereby acting as a narrator to the story involving the two lovers. Towards the end of the video, Hayes enters a small concert hall where Daniel Jones is playing guitar. Shortly afterwards, the young lady manages to find her lover, right in the centre of Paris, at the feet of the Tour Saint-Jacques. They are both filled with emotion on seeing each other again. The video ends with Hayes and Jones coming out of the concert hall, and coming across the two lovers who are rejoicing in their reunion.

Track listings

Australia

* CD single # "Truly Madly Deeply" # "Promises" # "Truly Madly Deeply" (night radio mix) * Maxi-CD single # "Truly Madly Deeply" # "Promises" # "Truly Madly Deeply" (night radio mix) # "I Want You" (Bastone club mix) # "I Want You" (I Need I Want mix)

Europe

* CD1 # "Truly Madly Deeply" – 4:37 # "I'll Bet He Was Cool" – 4:58 * CD2 # "Truly Madly Deeply" – 4:38 # "Truly Madly Deeply" (Australian version) – 4:38 # "Truly Madly Deeply" (night radio mix) – 4:35 # "This Side of Me" – 4:09 # "Love Can Move You" – 4:47

United Kingdom

* CD1 # "Truly Madly Deeply" (album version) – 4:38 # "Truly Madly Deeply" (Australian version) – 4:38 # "This Side of Me" – 4:09 # "Love Can Move You" – 4:47 * CD2 # "Truly Madly Deeply" (album version) – 4:38 # "Truly Madly Deeply" (night radio mix) – 4:35 # "I Want You" (album version) – 3:52 # "I'll Bet He Was Cool" – 3:58 * Cassette # "Truly Madly Deeply" (album version) – 4:38 # "I Want You" (album version) – 3:52

United States

* CD, 7-inch, and cassette single # "Truly Madly Deeply" – 4:37 # "I'll Bet He Was Cool" – 4:58

Credits and personnel

Credits are adapted from the ''

'' album booklet. Studios * Mixed at Whitfield Street Studios (London, England) * Mastered at

Sony Music Studios Sony Music Studios was an American music recording and mastering facility in New York City. The five-story building was a music and broadcasting complex located at 460 W. 54th Street, at 10th Avenue, in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhat ...

(New York City) Personnel * Darren Hayes – writing, lead vocals, background vocals, vocal arrangement * Daniel Jones – writing, additional vocals, additional guitars, keyboards,

sequencing In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure (sometimes incorrectly called the primary sequence) of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic linear depiction known as a sequence which succ ...

* Rex Goh – guitar * Alex Hewitson – bass * Terepai Richmond – drums, percussion * Charles Fisher – production, vocal arrangement * Jim Bonnefond – vocal arrangement * Mike Pela – mixing * Vlado Meller – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications and sales

Release history

In popular culture

The song was featured in the episode, "CATastrophe" of the

Paramount+ Paramount+ (formerly known as CBS All Access in the United States and 10 All Access in Australia) is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, stream ...

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

animated series ''

Big Nate ''Big Nate'' (stylized as ''big NATE'' in the List of Big Nate collections, comic collections and ''BiG NATE'' in the Big Nate#Book series, books) is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Lincoln Peirce, syndicated since January ...

''. The song was also featured in a commercial for Puma and Google Home Mini.

Sandy and Junior version

The song was covered in 1998 by Brazilian brother-sister singing duo

Sandy & Junior Sandy & Junior were a Brazilian pop music duo consisting of siblings Sandy Leah Lima (born January 28, 1983) and Durval de Lima Júnior (born April 11, 1984). They first gained notoriety by being the children of Xororó from popular sertanejo ...

. The

Portuguese-language Portuguese ( or ) is a Western Romance language of the Indo-European language family originating from the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is the official language of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tom ...

version, "No Fundo do Coração" ("From the Bottom of the Heart"), was released as the third single from the teens' eighth album, ''Era Uma Vez (Ao Vivo)''. The album was certified Diamond in Brazil in 1999 by the Brazilian Association of Discs Producers (ABPD) for sales of over 1.8 million copies in Brazil alone. The album was their last for PolyGram Records before moving to

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

Cascada version

German

Eurodance Eurodance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of Hip-hop, rap, techno and Eurodisco. This genre of music is heavily influenced by the use ...

group

Cascada Cascada (, Spanish language, Spanish, 'Waterfall'), is a German dance music act founded in 2004 by singer Natalie Horler and DJs/composers/ producers DJ Manian and DJ Yanou. They functioned as a trio from 2004 to 2021, with their last track ...

covered "Truly Madly Deeply" on their debut album, '' Everytime We Touch'' (2007), and released it as the second single in the UK and Germany. Although the album version of the song is a

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

, there is also an up-tempo version of the song that is the main single version. Both versions are featured on the UK edition of the album. First released in the United States exclusively in the iTunes Store on 27 February 2006, the US physical release was 13 March 2007. The single entered the UK Singles Chart at number 17 solely on downloads and peaked at number four the following week, after its physical release. In Ireland, it remained in the top 4 for four weeks.

Track listing

* UK CD single part 1 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (radio edit) – 2:57 #" Everytime We Touch" – 3:19 * UK CD single Part 2 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (radio edit) – 2:57 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (album version) – 4:14 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (club mix) – 4:34 #"Truly Madly Deeply" ( Styles & Breeze remix) – 5:03 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Thomas Gold remix) – 8:32 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (DJ Bomba & El Senor remix) – 6:49 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Frisco Remix) – 6:07 * German 12-inch single #"Truly Madly Deeply" (2–4 Grooves Remix) – 6:00 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Thomas Gold Remix) – 8:29 * German CD single #"Truly Madly Deeply" (radio edit) – 2:55 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Thomas Gold radio edit) – 3:36 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (2–4 Grooves radio edit) – 3:27 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (album version) – 4:12 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Candy radio edit) – 3:18 * US CD maxi-single #"Truly Madly Deeply" (radio edit) – 2:58 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (album version) – 4:12 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Thomas Gold radio edit) – 3:38 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Tune Up! radio edit) – 2:58 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Thomas Gold remix) – 8:30 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (UK club mix) – 4:34 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Tune Up! remix) – 4:35 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Styles & Breeze remix) – 4:58 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (DJ Bomba & El Senor remix) – 6:48 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Frisco remix) – 6:00 * Australian single 2007 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (2–4 Grooves Radio Edit) – 3:30 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (UK radio edit) – 2:54 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (radio pop mix) – 4:14 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Ivan Filini Radio Edit) – 3:07 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (album version) #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Styles & Breeze Remix) – 5:03 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Tune Up! Remix) – 4:35 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (DJ Bomba & El Senor Remix) – 6:49 #"Truly Madly Deeply" (Thomas Gold Remix) – 8:30 Other remixes *"Truly Madly Deeply" (Alex K Remix) – 6:15 *"Truly Madly Deeply" (original dance remix, Asian edition) *"Truly Madly Deeply" (original dance edit, Asian edition)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release and track listings

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1990s ballads 1997 songs 1997 singles 2006 singles APRA Award winners ARIA Award-winning songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cascada songs Columbia Records singles Number-one singles in Australia Pop ballads RPM Top Singles number-one singles Savage Garden songs Songs written by Daniel Jones (musician) Songs written by Darren Hayes Warner Music Group singles Music videos directed by Adolfo Doring Music videos shot in France