Where the Wild Roses Grow

"Where the Wild Roses Grow" is a murder ballad by Australian rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and pop singer Kylie Minogue. It is the fifth song and lead single from the band's ninth studio album, "Murder Ballads" (1996), released on Mute Records. It was written by the band's frontman Nick Cave and produced by Tony Cohen and Victor Van Vugt.
The song received a positive reception from music critics and became the band's most successful single worldwide reaching No. 3 in Norway, the top five in Australia, and the top twenty in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and New Zealand. It also received a limited promotional release in the United States. The song was certified Gold in Germany in 1996 for 250,000 copies sold, despite never reaching the top ten in that country. It charted again at the bottom of the German Top 100 in 2008 because of digital downloads after it was used in a soap opera. "Where the Wild Roses Grow" was also certified Gold in Australia for selling 50,000 copies.
Cave was inspired to write "Where the Wild Roses Grow" after listening to the traditional song, "Down in the Willow Garden", a tale of a man courting a woman and killing her while they are out together. Cave arranged this tale as second of two B-sides, "The Ballad of Robert Moore & Betty Coltrane" / "The Willow Garden", released on the CD-Maxi single version.
Although the song does not feature on a Minogue studio album, it can be found on her compilations "Hits+", "Greatest Hits 1987–1999", "Ultimate Kylie", "The Abbey Road Sessions" and "". Minogue performed a chorus of the song during her and tours.
It reached number 8 in Triple J's Hottest 100 1995. In 2012, "NME" listed the song in the "100 Best Songs of the 1990s" at number 35, while in 2014, "NME" placed it at number 378 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Background.
Cave described writing the song:
A CD of the track—which had Blixa Bargeld singing Minogue's lines—was sent to Minogue's parents' house (as she was staying there at the time) prior to her recording the song.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Kylie Minogue first performed the song publicly on 4 August 1995 in Cork, Republic of Ireland.
Song information.
According to the sheet music edition published by SheetMusicNow.com, "Where The Wild Roses Grow" is written in the compound time signature of 6/8 and is set in the key signature of G minor, at a tempo of 56 beats per minute.
Critical reception.
"Music & Media" wrote, "Written especially for Minogue, the diminutive singer forms an unlikely but stunning combination with Cave. A brooding and haunting song that finds Cave in a sombre, Leonard Cohen-type of mood against Minogue's declaring diction. The tension gradually builds up as each tells their own version of a tale of murder." "Music Week" rated it 4 out of 5, adding, "Nick croons while Kylie purrs in this folksy foretaste of the album of murder ballads". 
Music video.
The video for this song, commissioned by Emma Davies for Mute Records, shot by director Rocky Schenck and produced by Nick Verden for Atlas Films, shows Kylie Minogue in character, apparently having been murdered by Nick Cave's character. We see her in ghost-like form and also in a river in a pose reminiscent of Millais' painting "Ophelia" (1851–52). The video ends with Cave's character putting a rose in Minogue's mouth and closing her eyelids.
Live performances.
Cave and Minogue performed the song together live on stage in London on 3 June 2018 when Kylie made a surprise appearance during the Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds set at All Points East festival.
Minogue performed the song on the following concert tours:
Minogue appeared as a surprise guest at Coldplay's Enmore Theatre show in Sydney, Australia on 19 June 2014, where they performed the song as a duet. Cave and Minogue performed the song at the 2019 Glastonbury Festival.
Other version.
A guide track with The Bad Seeds guitarist, Blixa Bargeld, singing Kylie Minogue's vocal part was released on the compilation "B-Sides & Rarities".
Formats and track listings.
These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Where the Wild Roses Grow".