Savage Garden

From Woodridge, Australia to worldwide success, Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones were responsible for some of the most widely-known pop songs of the late '90s and early '00s. Appropriately enough, given their Anne Rice-inspired name, Savage Garden veered between lush ballads (Truly Madly Deeply, I Knew I Loved You) and up-tempo dance numbers (I Want You, The Animal Song) with a deftness that put many of their contemporaries in the shade.

In July of 1996, under Roadshow Music, the duo released their debut single I Want You. The single was a hit in Australia and became the year's highest-selling by an Australian artist. The success of the single garnered much interest from many U.S. record labels and in September, Columbia Records won the bidding war to sign the band. In November a second single, To The Moon And Back, was released and was another chart hit—reaching No. 1 in January of the following year.