One Hit Wondering – Merril Bainbridge

One Hit Wondering is a series of columns where I listen to the album of a one hit wonder, and find three songs, other than the hit, that people should hear. 

We often think of one hit wonders as artists who are universally known because of their one gigantic song. In some cases, however, when the song leaves rotation, the nostalgia train never returns to pick it back up, and both the song, and the artist, fade into obscurity. In the case of Australian pop artist Merril Bainbridge, who had a major hit in the mid ‘90s with the bubbly make-out song “Mouth,” the disappearing act was at least partly intentional.

Bainbridge didn’t debut with a bang. In fact, you could actually call her debut a false start. While “Mouth” would eventually become a hit, when it was originally released in October of 1994 as her debut single in her native Australia it failed to make an impact. The collective thinking, in hindsight, was that the song was lost in the Christmas shuffle. Her label felt it deserved a better fate, so they re-released it in February of 1995.

To say that would turn out to be a good decision is an understatement.

“Mouth” rocketed to the top of the charts in Australia, inspiring thousands of make-out sessions in the process. Even more impressively, with “Mouth,” Bainbridge became the first Australian woman to reach #1 in her country with a self-written debut single.

By the time Christmas rolled around in 1995, “Mouth” was the fourth highest selling single in Australia for the year.

What a difference a year makes!

Bainbridge’s debut album, The Garden, was released in Australia via Gotham Records in July of 1995, and was followed by a run of successful singles in her homeland. America, however, still hadn’t heard any of her music.

Thanks to a loophole in Bainbridge’s contract, she was allowed to sign with a different U.S. label, and in 1996 she signed with Universal. “Mouth” was then finally released in the U.S. in August of ’96, nearly two full years after its original release in Australia. The song would prove to be a hit again, climbing all the way up to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, eventually achieving gold status (over 500k sold).

The Garden would reach American soil in September of ’96, but while it spawned numerous hits in Australia, it didn’t have the same impact stateside, peaking at #101 on the Billboard 200.

The success of “Mouth” sent Bainbridge on a U.S. tour, playing with Jewel, and The Wallflowers. The song became so big she even performed with Sheryl Crow, and No Doubt at Madison Square Garden.

When Bainbridge returned to Australia she bought an old church, converted it into a recording studio, launched her own label – the name of which I can’t, for the life of me, find on the internet – and began producing new artists.

She also recorded her sophomore album, Between the Days, which would be released in Australia in October of 1998. The album featured a collaboration with Shaggy where they covered the Sonny & Cher song “I Got You Babe.” Really, I’m not kidding.

When all was said and done her first two albums netted her five Top 40 singles in her homeland. Bainbridge then became the opposite of single, getting married, and having a son.

In 2003 she completed a third album, and was promoting the lead single, “Girl Next Door,” when she had a moment that completely changed her priorities. On her website she writes, “One day, after returning from a weekend interstate, I noticed that my baby would no longer look at me, he kept turning away and just snuggled into his dad and wouldn’t let go. I naturally burst into tears and spent the rest of the week doing some hard thinking. I decided to take a break.”



During that break she gave birth to her second child, and in 2011 she turned her attention to the fashion world, founding a maternity brand named Peachymama, which she ran for 11 years before selling it to equity investors, and exiting the business.

From what it sounds like, Bainbridge found her happily ever after, and the other day I found a copy of The Garden at a library sale. With this column in mind, I picked it up, gave it a spin, and discovered three songs, other than “Mouth,” that you should hear.

 

“Garden In My Room”

 

I’m always a sucker for a good dark pop song, especially when an artist has a voice as sweet at Bainbridge’s. It’s that juxtaposition of darkness and light that makes “Garden In My Room” such a great listen.

The song has a Garden of Eden theme. It’s seductive, and alluring, but should you accept the invite she’s extending? Clearly, it’s a risky proposition (and as a guy named Adam, I know the dangers of accepting produce from women in gardens!).

It’s also the rare dark pop song that has an accordion solo.

“Being Boring”

 

“Being Boring” is a song by Pet Shops Boys, which they released as a single in 1990. The song is about how people’s perceptions and values change as they grow up, but the video never saw the light of day on MTV, which banned it due to the clip having male nudity.

Regardless, the song meant a lot to the band. In an interview in 1993, Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant called “Being Boring,” “One of the best songs that we’ve written,” adding, “For me it is a personal song because it’s about a friend of mine who died of AIDS, and so it’s about our lives when we were teenagers, and how we moved to London, and I suppose me becoming successful and him becoming ill.”

 

While the original has a wistful air to it, and is pure late ‘80s / early ‘90s Euro synth pop, Bainbridge’s cover takes it in a different direction. Less wistful, and more mournful, her stripped down performance makes an already touching song absolutely heartbreaking in a way I’m sure Pet Shop Boys appreciated.

“State of Mind”

 

Much like “Garden In My Room,” “State of Mind” is a dark pop song. There’s no accordion solo this time around, but I love the strings on this one.

The most brilliant aspect of the song, however, is the way it builds from a simple ticking clock to a huge crescendo of instruments – a veritable overload of audible stimuli acting as a musical representation of insanity – then fades back to just the ticking clock. It’s absolutely fantastic.

Until next time, here’s to discovering more great music from one hit wonders!