Format CD single, Cassette Length 4:10 | Recorded 1999 Label Columbia | |
Released 28 September 1999 (1999-09-28) Genre Pop, adult contemporary | ||
"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". After its third week at number one, the single was knocked off by Mariah Carey's "Thank God I Found You" featuring Joe and 98 Degrees. It later returned to the top again the following week for its fourth and final week at the top.
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It was the last song by an Australian artist to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for over 12 years until Gotye peaked at number one with his single "Somebody That I Used to Know" (featuring Kimbra) in 2012.
The music video featured then-teen actress Kirsten Dunst as Darren Hayes' love interest and received a heavy rotation on MTV.
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. 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.
Charts
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, 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 #1 AC song of all time). It ranked #21 in 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.