Songoftheday 6/19/20 - Kiss me on my salty lips I bet you feel a little crazy, but for me we'll be famous on TV...
from the album The Garden (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 25
Today's song of the day comes from Australian pop singer/songwriter Merril Bainbridge, who hails from the city of Melbourne there. Singing since she was a child, Merril released her debut album The Garden in Australia in the summer of 1995. The lead single from the record, "Mouth", was a quirky and percussive midtempo number that became massive in her home country, spending six weeks at #1 there. A year later, the single finally made its way to America, where it found a home on mainstream pop radio, and Merril found herself with her first and biggest hit...
"Mouth" climbed all the way to the top five on the American pop chart in November of 1996. The song also rose to #8 on Billboard magazine's Adult Top-40 radio format tally. Internationally, besides its homegrown success, the single topped the Canadian singles chart for a week at the beginning of 1997, while making the top-40 in Iceland (#5) and New Zealand (#17). In the UK, the track was a minor hit at #51. The Garden album just missed the top half of the Billboard 200 sales chart at #101.
Bainbridge's follow-up single, "Under The Water" was a bit dark, with lyrics about a boyfriend who drowned. While it was a #4 hit in Australia in the summer of 1995, in America it popped on to the Hot 100 for a month and a half, peaking at #91 (it even stiffed in Canada, halting at #72). The third release, "Power Of One", was a top-40 hit Down Under at #21, but went unnoticed elsewhere, as did the fourth and final single "Sleeping Dogs", which got to #55 in Australia.
After touring with Sheryl Crow, Merril returned in 1998 with her sophomore effort Between The Days. However, her star had waned even in her homeland, with lead single "Lonely" just making the top-40 at #40. Even though it sported a similar percussion pattern as "Mouth", when it got to America, the best she could do is "bubble under" the pop Hot 100 at #118. The album missed the top-40 in Australia at #58, and didn't even show here. Since then Merril has yet to put out a third album, she quit the business and according to her website sells maternity clothing.
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Here's Merril performing "Mouth" for Australian television in 1995...
Up tomorrow: Rock chick is interested in your well-being.
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