Into My Arms

"Into My Arms" is a song written by Nick Cave, and released as the first single from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' tenth studio album The Boatman's Call in 1997. The single, released on 27 January 1997, was pressed on 7" vinyl, as well as a standard CD single. A promotional music video for the song was also recorded.

For the Lemonheads song, see Into Your Arms.

"Into My Arms"
Single by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
from the album The Boatman's Call
B-side"Little Empty Boat"
Released27 January 1997
StudioSarm West, Abbey Road (London, England)
GenreAlternative rock
Length4:15
LabelMute Records
Songwriter(s)Nick Cave
Producer(s)Flood, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds singles chronology
"Henry Lee"
(1996)		 "Into My Arms"
(1997)		 "(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?"
(1997)

Background and history

The song takes the form of a love ballad, with a piano and an electric bass as the sole instruments used. Music journalist and critic Toby Creswell included "Into My Arms" in his book 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets Behind Them, in which he attributed the song's melancholic lyrics to the break-up of Cave's long-term relationship with Viviane Carneiro and his subsequent brief relationship and break-up with English musician PJ Harvey.[1][2] In Cave's lecture "The Secret Life of the Love Song" to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, he counts the song among those he is most proud of having written.[3]

Cave said he wrote the song in rehab: "I was actually walking back from church through the fields, and the tune came into my head, and when I got back to the facility I sat down at the cranky old piano and wrote the melody and chords, then went up to the dormitory, sat on my bed and wrote those lyrics."[4]

Cave performed the song at the funeral of his friend, INXS singer Michael Hutchence, but requested the cameras recording the service be switched off as he performed.[5][6]

Reception

The song was also nominated for Single of the Year at the 1997 ARIA Awards,[7] and came No. 18 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of that year.[8] It was No. 84 in the 1998 Hottest 100 of All Time, and No. 36 in the 2009 Hottest 100 of All Time.[2]

Music video

The song's music video was directed by British director Jonathan Glazer. In an interview on the DVD The Work of Director Jonathan Glazer, Nick Cave praised the video as well-produced, but said he considered it a poor fit with the song as the video's depressing imagery overrode the melancholic optimism Cave had intended the song to convey.[9][10]

Track listings

UK CD single (Mute Records, CD MUTE 192)

  1. "Into My Arms" – 4:15
  2. "Little Empty Boat" – 4:25
  3. "Right Now I'm A-Roaming" – 4:21

UK 7-inch single (Mute Records, MUTE 192)

  1. "Into My Arms" – 4:15
  2. "Little Empty Boat" – 4:25

Charts
Chart (1997) Peak
position
Australian Charts[11] 26
New Zealand Singles Chart[12] 41
Norwegian Singles Chart[13] 8
Swedish Singles Chart[14] 46
UK Singles Chart[15] 53

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[16] Silver 200,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Cover versions

"Into My Arms" was also recorded by Ane Brun and Roger Daltrey. In 2012, American artist Eliza Rickman included a cover on her second album, O, You Sinners. In 2017, Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer also recorded the song for their album Not Dark Yet. It has also been covered by Band of Horses. In 2021, American psychedelic rock band The Flaming Lips and singer Nell Smith released Where the Viaduct Looms, a collaborative album of Nick Cave covers that included a rendition of "Into My Arms." In 2022, the interdisciplinary artist Hayden Dunham released a cover of the song, under their Hyd moniker.[17]

"Into My Arms" featured in the films Zero Effect (1998), the television film On the Beach (2000), He Died with a Felafel in His Hand (2001), Gettin' Square (2003), and About Time (2013). It has also appeared in The L Word episode "Luck, Next Time", series 4, episode 7 of British teen drama Skins, series 1, episode 5 of the Australian detective show City Homicide, John Patrick Shanley's 2012 play Storefront Church and series 1, episode 8 of The Mist. The song is also the closing track of the 2017 Paddy Considine film Journeyman. The song is also used in the 2015 BBC series Uncle at the end of the fifth episode of season two as well as appearing in the third episode of the Ricky Gervais 2019 Netflix series After Life. The song is also used as a trans-diegetic sound in the 2019 TV series War of the Worlds. "Into My Arms" also appears in the closing credits of the Australian TV series Mr Inbetween (season 3 episode 6). At the beginning of the final episode of the 2023 TV series Rain Dogs the character Iris plays the song, on an abandoned piano amidst a pile of junk.

References
  1. Creswell, Toby (2006). 1001 Songs : The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets Behind Them. Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 1-74066-331-4.
  2. Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time, Triple J, 2009.
  3. Cave, Nick: The Love Song, Atelierhaus der Akademie der Bildenden Künste, 25 September 1999.
  4. Nick Cave and Sean O'Hagan (2022). Faith, Hope and Carnage. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 51. ISBN 9780374607371.
  5. Order of Service, Official Michael Hutchence Memorial Website.
  6. "Celebrities and fans share Hutchence family grief". BBC News. 27 November 1997.
  7. 11th Annual ARIA Awards Archived 22 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine, ARIA, 1997.
  8. Hottest 100 1997, Triple J, 1998.
  9. The Work of Director Jonathan Glazer Archived 14 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Palm Pictures.
  10. The Work of Director-Jonathan Glazer (2005), MichaelDVD, 7 March 2007.
  11. "australian-charts.com – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Into My Arms". 1997. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  12. "charts.nz – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Into My Arms". 1997. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  13. "norwegiancharts.com – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Into My Arms". 1997. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  14. "swedishcharts.com – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Into My Arms". 1997. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  15. Warwick, Neil; Tony Brown; Jon Kutner (2004). The Complete Book of the British Charts. Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-058-0.
  16. "British single certifications – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Into My Arms". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  17. "Hyd – 'Into My Arms' (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Cover)". 26 January 2022.
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