Under the Water

"Under the Water" is a song written in 1990 by Owen Bolwell and Stanley Paulzen, produced by Siew for Australian singer-songwriter Merril Bainbridge's first album, The Garden (1995). The song is about a lover who drowned.^[2]

The first version of the song was released in late 1991 on Bolwell and Paulzen's band Tlot Tlot's album A Day at the Bay as "Marshall", featuring Angie Hart from Frente!. The Bainbridge version of the song was released as the album's second single in July 1995 in Australia and February 1997 in the United States. Although it was successful in Australia, reaching number four on the ARIA Singles Chart. In the United States and Canada, the song peaked at numbers 91 and 72, respectively. At the APRA Music Awards of 1996 it won a trophy for Most Performed Australian Work.^[3]

Commercial performance

"Under the Water" had commercial success in Australia. In late July 1995 it debuted at number 46 on the ARIA Singles Chart.^[4] During its fifth week on the chart, it peaked at number four, making the song Bainbridge's second top-10 single.^[4] The song spent a total of 16 weeks in the top 50, and the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) awarded the single a platinum certification for shipping 70,000 copies.^[4][5] It became the 24th-highest-selling single in Australia for 1995, selling an estimate of 80,000 copies around Australia.^[5][6] The song was nominated for an ARIA Award as the "Highest Selling Single" for 1996 but lost to "Let's Groove" by CDB.^[7]

The song was released in the United States on 18 February 1997 but failed to replicate the top-10 success of "Mouth", peaking at ninety-one and spending only six weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. It was Bainbridge's last song to chart on the Hot 100.

Music video

There were two music videos produced to promote the song, the first one for Australia and a second version for the United States. The original Australian version was a simple black and white video with Bainbridge walking around a forest and performing the song with a band. However, when Bainbridge broke in the U.S. with her previous single "Mouth", a sleeker video, directed by Martin Kahan,^[8] was produced for the American market. It was released in December 1996 and shows a man and a woman in a room filled with water.

Track listings

Australian CD single^[9]

1. "Under the Water"
2. "Garden in My Room" (demo)
3. "Mouth" (demo)

US CD and cassette single^[10][11]

1. "Under the Water"
2. "Mouth" (alternate take)

French CD single^[12]

1. "Under the Water"
2. "Under the Water" (rhythmic version)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

|}

Release history

References

1. ^ "Search results"
2. ^ "song meaning". their.aust.com. Archived 26 May 1997 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 22 December 2006.
3. ^ "1996 Winners – APRA Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS). Archived 18 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
4. ^ aus
5. ^ "1995 ARIA Singles Chart". ARIA. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
6. ^ "The Making of Merril". interview. Archived 26 May 1997 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 23 June 2007.
7. ^ "1996: 10th Annual ARIA Awards". ARIA Awards. Retrieved 28 October 2008.
8. ^ "Music video director". mvdbase. Retrieved 22 December 2006.
9. ^ Under the Water (Australian CD single liner notes). Gotham Multimedia. 1995. GOTH 95012.
10. ^ Under the Water (US CD single liner notes). Universal Records. 1996. UDS-56112.
11. ^ Under the Water (US cassette single sleeve). Universal Records. 1996. UCS-56112.
12. ^ Under the Water (French CD single liner notes). Gotham Multimedia. 1997. 74321 46626 2.
13. ^ "New Releases – Product Available from : 17/07/95: Singles". The ARIA Report. No. 283. 16 July 1995. p. 21.
14. ^ "New Releases". Radio & Records. No. 1183. 7 February 1995. p. 39. Retrieved 3 September 2021.