Let’s address the SMP hoodie-wearing elephant in the room: ‘Torn‘ is a cover. But so is bloody ‘Hallelujah‘ and ‘Superstition‘ and ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun‘ and ‘It’s Oh So Quiet‘ (for real). Sure, it’s not uncommon knowledge by now that the song was written in 1993 by the aggressively 90s-sounding band Ednaswap. But it’s Natalie Imbruglia‘s version of it that’s the definitive recording. And today, October 27th, that tune turns 20.
20 bloody years old.
On October 27th, 1997, then-22 year old Imbruglia released the first single from her debut album Left of the Middle. A tune plucked from virtual obscurity that had already had several stop-start attempts at becoming a hit. By virtue, or by stroke of good luck, Imbruglia’s debut album was being produced in-part by Phil Thornalley; a member of Ednaswap and co-writer of the original tune. Thornalley gave the tune to Imbruglia, and it was subsequently selected as her lead-off single.
It blew the fuck up.
A modest first few months milling about the lower ends of the charts suddenly turned utterly golden in the early throes of 1998, when the tune cracked the ARIA Top Ten on January 18th and proceeded to stay in there for 11 weeks, peaking at number 2 on March 1st. Were it not for a little film called Titanic and its lead tune from virtual nobody Celine Dion, it’s fair to say it would’ve kissed that number 1 spot fairly solidly.
The success of the song wasn’t limited to just Australia. Torn hit #1 in five different countries: Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, and Sweden. In the US, the song held the top spot on the Hot 100 Airplay charts for a staggering 11 weeks. Its Billboard chart peak of 42 is a severe misrepresentation of how popular the song was; Billboard rules prevented songs that weren’t released as physical CDs from charting, meaning the single was never actually available during the peak of its popularity.
But the real gold mine that Imbruglia tapped into was in the United Kingdom. Despite peaking at #2 on the chart for three weeks, beaten to the top by 90s anthem of 90s anthems ‘Barbie Girl‘ by Aqua, the single sold like the dickens.
With some 1.3 million copies sold in England alone, the song is – as of 2012 – the 85th biggest-selling single in UK history. And in fact, it’s the second highest-selling single to never peak at #1, a dubious honour of a category that it’s only bested in by WHAM!‘s enduring ‘Last Christmas.’
Between 1998 and 2011, the song was played well over 300,500 times on Australian radio, averaging out to around 75 plays per day.
And through everything that followed it; the career of Natalie Imbruglia that skyrocketed after its release; the subsequent album Left of the Middle thundering to #1 on the Australian album charts; the whirlwind romance, marriage, and subsequent divorce with Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns; the biff with record labels and the collaborations with the likes of Chris Martin; the judging spots on various incarnations of The X-Factor; the dizzying highs and the literal millions of album and single sales that followed…
Through all of that, one absolute truth remains:
The song is a stone cold hit.
A banger in every sense of the word.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH52vjr1XoQ
Happy 20th birthday, Torn. May you continue to pierce many a drunken karaoke night for 20 more years to come.
