"To the Moon and Back" is a song by Australian pop duoSavage Garden. It was released in Australia on 4 November 1996 as the second single from their self-titled 1997 album. It was the follow up to their hit "I Want You". It won the 1997 ARIA Music Award for Song of the Year. The song became a Top 3 hit on the UK Singles Chart, and a Top 25 hit on the US BillboardHot 100, and was also the band's first number one in their native country. While it did not have the success in the USA that "I Want You" did, the runaway success of its follow up "Truly Madly Deeply" inspired Savage Garden and Columbia Records to remix "To the Moon and Back" and release it again in 1998.
Release and chart performances
After the international success of their debut single, "I Want You", there were high expectations for the song as its follow-up. During the song's first charting in the USA, the song entered the Top 40 of the Hot 100 for only one week, peaking at number 37 the final week of August 1997. In the United Kingdom, the single was originally released in late September 1997, and there it failed to chart in the Top 40, stalling at number 55 for one week. Subsequently, "Truly Madly Deeply" became an even bigger hit than their debut, hitting the number one spot in several countries, including both the Hot 100 and the Hot Adult Contemporary charts in the United States, where it broke the record as the longest-running single to that time on the Adult Contemporary charts. In the wake of such success, the band decided the song had greater potential to become a hit than its first chartings had borne out, and so instead of mining a fourth single from the album as they had for the Australian market, they decided to mix a shorter edit of "To the Moon and Back" and re-release it internationally in 1998. This time the song peaked at number 24 in America, an improvement upon its first release yet still not the smash they had hoped it would be. In the United Kingdom, however, their faith was rewarded when the song debuted at number three, becoming Savage Garden's biggest hit in the country. This prompted the re-release of their debut single, remixed as "I Want You '98". The single was certified Silver in France in 1998, and sold 209,000.
Music video
There have been three different music videos for the song. The first, accompanying the Australian release of the song, was directed by Catherine Caines and Chris Bentley, and was shot in black-and-white. This version features Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones performing on what appears to be a space vessel, whilst a female passenger watches. A version of the video accompanied by a dance remix of the track was also released. The second, accompanying the United States and original United Kingdom release of the song, was directed by Nigel Dick in Los Angeles, and features Darren and Daniel performing in an apartment in Malibu whilst a female records the performance. This American video features Hayes with long hair. The third version, accompanying the re-release of 1998, was filmed in New York, and features a sad-looking teenage girl traveling by the metro to meet her friends. This video features Hayes with short hair, and is the most well-known of the three versions.
