This Day In Music History: John Waite and Missing You

On September 22 1984, this day in music history, John Waite had the #1 song in the country with “Missing You.” Mr. Waite was from Lancaster, England and was born on July 4, 1955. He had been performing in rock and jazz bands since he was 14 years old. In 1976 he was a founding member of the group The Babys. Their manager didn’t waste any time in getting them attention in the United States. To get attention for the group he had them do something unusual for the 1970’s. He had them make a video. It helped them get a deal with Chrysalis Records. Their first song was “Isn’t It Time” and it went to #13 in 1977. After three albums the group broke up. Mr. Waite went solo. His first single from his first album was called “Change.” While the video was popular it didn’t sell many records. His second album was called “No Brakes” and “Missing You” was the single that was released from the album. The video was given heavy rotation on MTV. Another way they used to sell the song was when Mr. Waite guest starred on three episodes of the prime time soap opera “Paper Dolls.” He sang parts of the song on each episode. He wanted to use parts of the film “Privilege” into his stage act for the TV show but the ABC network felt that parts of it were inappropriate.
The song was about a lot of personal feelings that Mr. Waite had about some issues that were going on in his life. He really wanted to keep them to himself but it all came out when he wrote the song. He said that when the song went to #1 it really changed his life. It gave him a different view of himself, the lady in his life and of other people who he wrote about in the song. Mr. Waite said “I was so proud of myself and the people that were involved in that song when it got to number one because it was so unselfconsciously put together and so honestly written.” He said “I’ve always found it very hard to take a compliment. But I don’t say no, I’m not very good anymore. I say thank you. Because I was #1 and I think that really helps me now to consider myself in some ways worthy of success and worthy of being an artist, and maybe worthwhile.”