B-side "For Your Love" Format Cassette, vinyl Genre Rock | Released 23 June 1984 Recorded February 1984 Length 4:01 | |
"Missing You" is a song co-written and recorded by English musician John Waite. It was released in June 1984 as the lead single from the album No Brakes. It peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the week of 22 September 1984, and number nine on the UK Singles Chart. "Missing You" was the only #1 song from 1984 to only spend one week at the top of the charts (all other #1 singles in 1984 landed there for 2 or more weeks).
Contents
- Lyric summary
- Music video
- Versions and mixes
- Tina Turner version
- Evoke version
- Versions
- Brooks Dunn version
- Charts
- Re release
- Other versions
- References
John Waite re-recorded the song with country/bluegrass artist Alison Krauss which appeared on her album A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection, and released it to country music radio in 2007. The re-recording peaked at #34 on the Hot Country Songs chart. The original recording has been featured in the films, Selena (1997) and Warm Bodies (2013), the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and the TV series Miami Vice (from the episode, "Heart of Darkness", originally aired September 28, 1984), as well as in the comedy sitcom Rules of Engagement, in a scene at the diner where there is a flashback of Timmy and Russell's best moments together (season 7, episode "A Wee Problem", originally aired on 6 May 2013). It also appears in the film 22 Jump Street (2014) during the montage where main characters Schmidt and Jenko begin to miss each other after going their separate ways following a fight. The intro also features in the 1988 film The Great Outdoors with Dan Aykroyd and John Candy. The song is mentioned by Sheila Weller as describing O. J. Simpson's obsession with Nicole Brown Simpson and is the inspiration for the title of her book Raging Heart.
Original MTV personality Nina Blackwood said in the book VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV's First Wave that Waite had written the song about her. She later told the Tampa Bay Times that Waite confirmed this to her after the book's publication.
In 1985, Waite was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for this song.
Lyric summary
In the verses/bridge, the singer describes how much he misses his ex-lover, while in the chorus, he lies to himself and vehemently denies missing them.
Music video
The music video was written/directed/produced by Kort Falkenberg III and was actually filmed in Los Angeles during the summer of 1984. Although some people understandably have mistaken the street scene for New York City or London, the director intentionally looked for a location in downtown Los Angeles where there was "no Stucco" on the walls which would have been a dead giveaway that it was shot in the southwest U.S. He wanted it to look neutral and not be identifiable as any particular city.
To start the clip, John Waite is sitting in a chair, and after seeing a picture of a woman with whom he is still in love, he, frustrated, hits the lamp above him causing it to swing back and forth and begins to sing the song. When he opens his bedroom door, a woman playfully jumps into his arms and they embrace falling back onto the bed. Later, Waite watches through a crack in the door as the woman angrily throws her clothes into her suitcase. She pushes through the door to leave him and it hits him in the face full force as she storms past him, away. Pained at her emotional and physical assault, he sadly remembers being at one of her photo shoots. Trying to be cool, Waite leans on a lighting stand but misses and stumbles. Seeing this, she lovingly laughs at his fumbling. Back to the present, Waite tries to call her from a phone booth, but when the woman finally picks up the phone, her only connection is to a dangling phone in an empty phone booth. Waite is gone. He laments about "I ain't missin' you at all" as he walks down the city street only to see a picture of the woman on a newspaper. He goes into a bar. There, an older woman slides onto the stool next to him and tries to flirt with him, but for sheer sorrow shows he is not interested and then goes home again still pining for the woman. He tries again to call her but his anger and frustration gets the better of him and he smashes the phone into pieces. When she finally comes to his door and knocks, he doesn't answer, as he doesn't hear her knock over the music playing on his earphones he had put on just before her first knock. She leans against the door gently touching it and, with a deep breath, she turns and leaves as tears flow down her face.
Versions and mixes
There are some slight variations between the album version that appears on No Brakes and the single version that was released to both video and radio stations. In the album version at the beginning of the song, John can be heard repeating the phrase "Missing You" several times. This is absent in the single version, however, an added synthesizer can heard on the left channel when John is singing the chorus on the single version along with several echo effects of John's voice.
Tina Turner version
This song was also recorded by Tina Turner in 1996, and was released as the third single from the album Wildest Dreams. When Waite's original version of "Missing You" topped Billboard's Hot 100 in late 1984, it ended the reign of Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do with It". Turner's version of Waite's "Missing You" hit #12 in the UK and #84 in the U.S in 1996.
The single "Missing You" included an edited single version of the track, an alternative mix and certain formats also the European non-album track "The Difference Between Us", later featured on the U.S. edition of the Wildest Dreams album. The B-side of the U.S. edition of the CD single was the non-album track "Do Something" which was the B-side of the UK single for "On Silent Wings".
Versions and mixes
Music video
The music video was directed by Peter Lindbergh and premiered in mid-1996.
E'voke version
This song was also recorded by E'voke in 1997 following their departure from Manifesto Records. James Rudolph provided a rap on the single and as with the previous single "Arms Of Loren", there were Steinway and Nip N Tuck remixes (the only version of the Nip N Tuck remix ever released was labelled an edit despite being the full version of the remix). Two promotional CDs were released before Pulse8 went bankrupt. The track was picked up by WEA who commissioned remixes by Metro and Echobeatz (the Echobeatz remix featuring on WEA's 1998 Summer Sampler) with the track scheduled for release in October 1998. The release was pushed back with two new radio edits being promo-ed including a "Christmas version" and a new release date of 14 December 1998.
A video was issued which would later be released to iTunes in 2011 (a video with the Christmas version dubbed over it was also released). The track was finally released on 28 December 1998 and failed to chart. Following this E'voke split up though the CD2 track listing would be released digitally with Pinball records issuing the CD1 track listing on iTunes in 2011. It is unknown if "Missing You" in an original or remixed form will be on the E'voke album due in 2014.
Versions
Brooks & Dunn version
This song was also recorded by American country music group Brooks & Dunn and was released in August 1999 as the lead single from the album Tight Rope. Their version peaked at #6 on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks, #15 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks and reached #75 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
Music video
The music video was directed by Deaton Flanigen and premiered in mid-1999.
Charts
"Missing You" peaked at number 54 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts for the week of December 18, 1999.
Re-release
Waite re-recorded the song in 2007 as a duet with bluegrass singer Alison Krauss. This re-recording was included on Waite's album Downtown: Journey of a Heart and Krauss's A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection, both released via Rounder Records. The rendition spent 21 weeks on Hot Country Songs between December 2006 and mid-2007, peaking at number 34.