Ednaswap, Natalie Imbruglia and Torn
One song’s journey from LA to Scandinavia to Australia
“Torn” is a song about a woman who thought she found the perfect guy but turns out she didn’t. I’m sure many of you can relate! I certainly can. Anyway, the song’s protagonist ends up “all out of faith” and “lying naked on the floor.”
Considered a 90s pop anthem, “Torn” launched the singing career of Neighbours star Natalie Imbruglia. In 2011, “Torn” was the most played song on Australian radio since 1990. It was also the qualifying song One Direction performed on UK X Factor in 2010.
“Torn” was written by members of LA rock band Ednaswap back in 1993. And it was recorded three times before Imbruglia’s 1997 version.
Writing Torn
Members of Ednaswap, Anna Preven and Scott Cutler, wrote “Torn” with Phil Thornally (a producer who’d worked on albums by The Cure, XTC and Edwyn Collins).
Preven, who was dating Cutler at the time, didn’t write the lyrics about any particular situation. However, she used her experience as a teenager working in a psychiatric hospital treating suicidal adolescents as inspiration. If you’re wondering why she got a job like that so young, it was because her dad was a psychiatrist who worked in the hospital.
