Songoftheday 6/18/21 - Take your hand and place it in my pocket, flick your eyes back in their sockets...

 

 

"Wishing I Was There" - Natalie Imbruglia

from the album Left Of The Middle (1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #25 (one week)

Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 11

 

Today's song of the day comes from Australian actress and singer Natalie Imbruglia, who went from starring in the Aussie soap opera Neighbors to a top ten worldwide hit single with "Torn", which spent seven weeks at #1 on the radio chart in America in spring of 1998.  While in her homeland and Europe the second single from the set was "Big Mistake", which went all the way to #2 in the UK and #6 in Australia, her follow-up single in America was the third international release, "Wishing I Was There". Written by Natalie with producer Phil Thornalley (of the Cure) and Colin Campsie (of Giant Steps), the track reflects a little Sheryl Crow with the speak-singing, and a little Alanis Morissette with the attitude and bitter love content. The mid-tempo song became her second success in the States. The lyrics are more vague than "Torn" in their romantic narrative, but the idea that wherever her fling of the moment goes she wants to be there even if they're not together anymore...

Since, like "Torn", "Wishing I Was There" wasn't released commercially as a retail single in the U.S., it wasn't able to place on Billboard magazine's official Hot 100 pop chart. However the song got enough radio spins to make it into the top-40 of the airplay component of the tally in September of 1998. The song climbed to #13 on Billboard's older-skewing Adult Top-40 radio chart, and rose to #26 on the Alternative Rock format list. Internationally, the single reached the top-5 in Canada, Belgium, Iceland, and Hungary, and made the top-40 in the UK (#19), Australia (#24), Italy (#27), and New Zealand (#40). 

A final single from Left Of The Middle, the moody "Smoke" (a personal favorite from the record), returned Natalie to the top ten in the UK (#5), while just missing the top-40 in Australia at #42. 

In 2001, Imbruglia returned with her sophomore effort White Lilies Island. While the rock waltz "That Day" was put out as the lead single internationally, doing quite well going to #10 in Australia and #11 in the UK and Belgium, her record company in America chose a more older-audience friendly "Wrong Impression". The song got to #7 at Adult Top-40 radio here, and rose to #30 on the Adult Contemporary format, but stalled on the pop Hot 100 down at #64. That song did make the top ten in Britain and NewZealand at #10 and got all the way to #2 in Belgium. The album made the top-40 on the Billboard 200 tally in the U.S. at #35, her last placing there so far.

Four years later, Natalie emerged with a third disc, Counting Down The Days, which went all the way to #1 on the British Albums sales chart, on the strength of the top ten hit "Shiver". That song also went to #6 in Italy, and was her most recent top-40 hit in her native Australia at #19. 

Going independent, Natalie released her fourth studio set Come To Life in 2009. Lead single "Want", co-written with Chris Martin of Coldplay and Daniel Johns of Silverchair, was a minor British hit at #88. Since then she has released one more album, Male, in 2015, which came in at #20 in the UK, and is expecting to put out a new set, Firebird, this coming September.

(7/10)

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Here's Natalie performing live on the Jools Holland show promoting the single...

and lastly, in concert in Italy in 2005...

Up tomorrow: These Canadians are here for seven days.