Trivia / Savage Garden

• Approval of God: Darren approved of "I Want You"◊ as the ED to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, in a now-deleted tweet.
• Breakup Breakout: After the breakup, Darren Hayes continued having a successful performing career for the for the remainder of the Turn of the Millennium. Daniel Jones, on the other hand, never enjoyed being in the spotlight and turned to producing and promoting upcoming Australian music acts before leaving the industry completely.
• Colbert Bump: The use of "I Want You" as the end credits song in the anime adaptation of Part 4 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure gave them a pretty sizable bump in popularity both in Japan and internationally. To promote the release of the anime, a limited-edition release of their second Greatest Hits Album, The Singles was released in Japan with main character Josuke on the cover◊.
• Creator Backlash: Darren didn't like the song "Promises" for a while, because the band were forced to include it on the international first album by the US label. He has said that he leaves it off any release he can.
• Creator Breakdown: A good portion of the songs in Affirmation, as exemplified by "Hold Me Tonight", were written by Darren Hayes in an attempt to sort through his emotions as his first marriage fell apart and he started coming to grips with his sexuality.
• Creator's Favorite: Daniel Jones says that he prefers the band's self-titled debut album, particularly "To the Moon and Back".
• Development Hell: They recorded 'You Can Still Be Free' for their 1995 demo tape, but it completely missed recording for their first album or B Sides. They had written the song about a friend who had committed suicide, and though they initially left it unreleased, his family loved it and felt it was an important message. As a result, it was recorded for their second album Affirmation in 1999.
• Dye Hard/Dyeing for Your Art: For most of Savage Garden's career, Darren Hayes had straight black hair, as it was long during 1994-97 and short during 1997-2000. Many would be shocked to find out he actually has curly blonde hair◊. This was a symbolic statement for Darren, that in order to succeed in show business he would have to change who he was. Post-SG, he went blond for a while, during Spin, then dark again around The Tension and the Spark. As of Secret Codes and Battleships, he has brown hair.
  • The reason he had straight black hair was to imitate his idol Michael Jackson, whose influence is most obviously heard in "Break Me Shake Me".
• Executive Meddling: The International version of their first album (outside Australia and New Zealand) removed the songs "All Around Me" and "Mine", and added "Promises" to make up for it (it was previously the Australian B Side to Truly Madly Deeply). Both were removed because they might offend Moral Guardians in the band's attempt to break the US - "All Around Me" being overtly about sex, and "Mine" having the line 'crosses and crucifixes'. "Mine" was however reinstated as the bonus track on the Japanese version. In addition, "Truly Madly Deeply" was replaced by a version with a new drum track replacing the original drum machine - this version became the hit single version around the world. The track order was changed too in order to give prominence to the singles. The band were annoyed about this, having deliberately sequenced the album and chosen the tracks from a large pool, and feeling that the song "Mine" was important to the album. Darren Hayes insists that people listen to the original Australian version to hear the band's real vision.
  • The international music video for "I Want You" has Darren Hayes in a metal head brace for most of his scenes, limiting his range of motion - Darren was later disgusted to learn that this was because someone had complained that “the lead singer looks gay when he moves.”
• Real Song Theme Tune: "I Want You" ended up being the ending theme for Jojos Bizarre Adventure's fourth season, "Diamond Is Unbreakable". Main protagonist Josuke poses and even lip-syncs along as it plays!
• Referenced by...: The American female Professional Wrestler Daizee Haze based her ring name on Darren Hayes.
• Similarly Named Works: Finnish Goth Rock band The 69 Eyes also released an album titled Savage Garden, around the same time the Australian band formed.

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