Missing You – John Waite | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning
Chart Performance: Peak (#1); 1984
Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne
Sometimes the creative process involves long hours and much sweat. At other times, as with Missing You, the pieces come together effortlessly. For John Waite it took the form of a stream-of consciousness outpouring of feelings and thoughts into lyrics and melody one night in a Los Angeles bedroom.
The spontaneous result was the very personal admission of the distress he was experiencing over a woman in his life coupled with John’s typically male declaration to the rest of the world that he wasn’t missing her at all.
John’s earlier efforts with The Babys – 1977’s Isn’t It Time and 1979’s Every Time I Think Of You, both #13 – brought some sales success, yet, left him creatively unfulfilled. Striking out on his own, his first album performed decently, and his second launched Missing You.
Unfortunately, follow-up sales faltered. John later reunited with two former Babys in Bad English. The move brought him another #1 in 1989 with When I See You Smile.
This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.
Produced by:
- John Waite
- David Thoener
- Gary Gersh
Lyrics Written by:
- John Waite
- Mark Leonard
- Charles Sandford
Ed Osborne
Hi. I got my first record at age two and never looked back, spending a decades-long career in radio and the music business. Even after years of reading about and listening to all types of music, I am still fascinated by it. Apart from that, I’m endlessly intrigued by art, nature, and the inner lives of people (and dogs).