1. Background

2. Music video

3. Commercial performance

4. Track listing

5. Charts
    Weekly charts  Year-end charts  Decade-end charts  All-time charts 

6. Certifications

7. Cover versions

8. See also

9. References

10. External links

"I Knew I Loved You" is a song by Australian pop duo Savage Garden, released as the second single from their second studio album, Affirmation. The song went straight to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's second number one in the United States after "Truly Madly Deeply". It was the last song by an Australian artist to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for over twelve years, until Gotye peaked at number one with his single "Somebody That I Used to Know" (featuring Kimbra) in 2012. The song also reached number one in Canada—the band's third single to do so—and number four in Australia. Elsewhere, the song also reached number one in Romania, number three in New Zealand and Sweden, and the top 10 in Norway and the United Kingdom.

The music video features then teen actress Kirsten Dunst as Darren Hayes' love interest and received a heavy rotation on MTV.

Background

"I Knew I Loved You"'s lyrics refer to the joy and sense of completion one feels after finally finding the right person to love. The irrational nature of such love is emphasised through the pre-chorus ("I know that it might sound more than a little crazy, but I believe") and the chorus ("I knew I loved you before I met you, I think I dreamed you into life").

In June 2015, a series of videos was posted on the duo's Facebook page to provide background on the songs included on The Singles compilation album. The story behind "I Knew I Loved You" was thus narrated by guitarist Daniel Jones: having finished recording material for Affirmation, Hayes and Jones were challenged by Columbia Records executive Don Ienner to produce the next "Truly Madly Deeply". The duo argued that "Truly Madly Deeply" was a one-of-its-kind song and could not possibly replicated, but also realised that their second album lacked a love ballad. Hayes and Jones went on to compose "I Knew I Loved You" and submitted it to the record label's executives, who were delighted with the result as they felt it was a strong contender to succeed "Truly Madly Deeply" as the band's US chart topper.

Singer Darren Hayes further explained that the song was born out of a paradoxical situation, being a love song written "in about 40 minutes out of spite towards the record company" at a time when he felt "wounded by love".^[1]

Music video

The music video was filmed by director Kevin Bray in August 1999 on a New York City Subway set that had previously been used on the sitcom Seinfeld.^[2] It features Hayes playing out a romantic plot on a subway train, with a female passenger (played by American actress Kirsten Dunst) as the object of his affections.

At one point, the train comes to a stop due to a power outage (at 2:24); red emergency lighting comes on and everyone in the carriage joins hands. Hayes, who is sitting opposite his aforementioned love interest, extends his hand to her.

As they touch, the video cuts to a montage of the couple walking through a park, bathed in sunlight, laughing and holding hands. The video then cuts back to the carriage as the power comes back on and the train pulls into the station. Hayes and the woman exit with the other passengers, and share a fleeting glance before going their separate ways. Shots of the band performing alone on the subway platform and in the carriage are interspersed throughout the video. The video was uploaded on YouTube on 25 October 2009. As of March 2019, the video has received over 94 million views.

Commercial performance

The song was a huge success in the United States, on the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent four weeks at the top, and an eventual 124 weeks on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart,^[3] breaking the record for 123 weeks set by another of the duo's songs, "Truly Madly Deeply" (which, in terms of sales and later time spent on the Recurrents chart, is still the number one AC song of all time). It ranked number 21 on the All Time Adult Contemporary Chart. The song was also certified Platinum by the RIAA and became the highest-played song on US radio of 2000.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

Cover versions

• Country singer Daryle Singletary covered the song for his 2000 album, Now and Again. His version reached #55 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in 2000.
• Cantopop singer Edison Chen covered the song for his 2002 album, Break Through.

See also

• List of Romanian Top 100 number ones of the 2000s
• List of number-one singles of 2000 (Canada)
• List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 2000
• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1999 and 2000 (US)
• List of Billboard Mainstream Top 40 number-one songs of 2000

References

External links

• {{MetroLyrics song|savage-garden|i-knew-i-loved-you}}

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