MOUTH (SONG)

"'Mouth'" is a pop song written by Merril Bainbridge, and produced by Siew for Bainbridge's debut album ''The Garden'' (1995). It was released as the album's first single in the end of November 1994 in Australia, then was re-issued on March 13, 1995. It became her biggest hit to date peaking at number-one on the ARIA Charts for six consecutive weeks^[1].

Contents

Content and music videos

Chart performance

Track listing

Charts

Release details

References

Content and music videos

The song, a playful and suggestive tune, was often referred to having something related to sexual themes. Bainbridge stated that "(Any sexuality on "Mouth" was) not deliberate - it was definitely not a sexual song. It's just honest - about a relationship, how you feel in a relationship. Sometimes you feel you're in control and the next thing, you're insecure - it's the role playing thing. To me, it's not about straight up sexuality. It doesn't bother me if people connect with that, because obviously it's there, but it wasn't something I was aware of"^[2].

There were two music videos for the song, both directed by one of Gotham Records founders Ross Fraser^[3]. The first video is a simple video with no plot, shot in both black and white and colour. Scenes included Bainbridge flirting with a man in a car and singing to camera wearing a black lingerie dress with a red heart in the middle of it. This video was released in Australia. The second video is in black and white and is just Bainbridge in a car kissing a man for the whole video, looking at the camera three times. This video as well as the first, was released around the world. The first music video can be found on the special edition of ''The Garden'' as a CD Rom.

Chart performance

It was first released in Australia in 1994 but disappeared quickly due to lack of interest and airplay, becoming lost in the annual flood of releases that occur around Christmas. The song was repackaged and reissued in 1995 and with the help of airplay and more promo it became the biggest song of her career. It debuted on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart at number forty-two and after just six weeks it achieved the number-one position and stayed there for six consecutive weeks^[4] and was accredited platinum by ARIA. The song was nominated for five ARIA Awards in 1995 - "Single of the Year", "Best Female Artist", "Best New Talent", "Breakthrough Artist - Single" and "Best Pop Release" but failed to win.^[5]
The song was released in the United States on August 20, 1996 and debuted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number sixty-seven and eventually peaked at number four. Success in the American music industry was, and still is, a relatively rare occurrence for Australian artists and the success of "Mouth" in the U.S. gave Bainbridge superstar status in her home country for a period. Ross Fraser stated that he thought she would have had more chance of success in Europe and what happened in the U.S. came as a surprise^[6]. The song spend a total of thirty weeks in the U.S. charts and was the thirty-seventh highest selling single for 1996. It was accredited gold by RIAA selling 600,000 copies around the U.S.^[7]. After the success of the song, Bainbridge toured the U.S. and during that tour she played at Madison Square Gardens in New York with Sheryl Crow. The song did not enjoy the same success in the UK, peaking at fifty-one in the charts during it's eight week run in the top two hundred. The song also went top five in Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines^[8].

Track listing

;CD single #"Mouth" — 3:27 #"Being Boring" — 3:53 #"Song for Neen" — 2:41 #"Mouth" (off the track mix) — 2:17 ;U.S. CD single #"Mouth" — 3:25 #"Julie" — 3:54

;The Remixes #"Mouth" (aversion mix) — 4:03 #"Mouth" (di version mix) — 5:41 #"Mouth" (conversion mix) — 7:18 #"Mouth" (reversion mix) — 3:58 #"Mouth" (inversion mix) — 3:58 #"Mouth" — 3:25 #"Julie" — 3:54

Charts

Chart (1995)	Peak position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart[9]	1
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart[10]	17
Chart (1996)	Peak position
Canada Singles Chart[11]	1
UK Singles Chart[12]	51
U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40[13]	3
U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100[14]	4
U.S. ''Billboard'' Adult Top 40	8
U.S. ''Billboard'' Rhythmic Top 40	23
U.S. ''Billboard'' Top 40 Mainstream	2
U.S. ''Billboard'' Top 40 Adult Recurrents	3
Chart (1997)	Peak position
Germany Singles Chart[15]	71

Release details

Country	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
Australia	1995-03-13	Gotham Records	CD	74321-23641-2
United States	1996-08-20	Universal Records	CD	56018
United Kingdom	1996-11-25	Arista Records	CD	74321431012

References

1. "Australian Chart Run". ''Australian-charts''. Retrieved July 12 2007.
2. "Merril Bainbridge - Bob Gajarsky". ''westnet.com]''. Retrieved December 8 2006.
3. Music video director
4. . This feat gave Bainbridge the accolade of having longest running number one by a Australian female in the 90's. "Mouth" spent a total of twenty-one weeks in the charts, was the fourth highest selling single for 1995"ARIA Charts - End Of Year Charts - Top 50 Singles 1995". ''ARIA Charts''. Retrieved July 12 2007.
5. ARIA Award nominations
6. "The Making of Merril page 4". ''thei.aust.com''. Retrieved July 11 2007.
7. "U.S. certification". ''RIAA''. Retrieved July 4 2007.
8. "The Making of Merril page 3". ''thei.aust.com''. Retrieved July 11 2007.
9. Australian chart position
10. New Zealand chart position
11. Canada chart position
12. UK chart run
13. "THE ARC WEEKLY TOP 40 ARCHIVES: November 16, 1996". ''Rock on the Net''. Retrieved July 19 2007.
14. "Merril Bainbridge - Artist Chart History". ''All Music Guide''. Retrieved December 8 2006.
15. Germany chart position