Musical Monday - Missing You by John Waite

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: The week of September 22, 1984.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: September 15, 1984 through September 22, 1984.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

My most dominant memory of this song is the fact that my mother quoted it's chorus in some of her letters to me while I was away at school. At the time, I was at a boarding school in Virginia, while my parents lived in Lagos, Nigeria at the time. My mother was not happy about this arrangement, and I probably didn't make it any easier by being really terrible at writing letters in return. needless to say, she sent me many more letters than I sent her.

The thing about the song is that it is actually a break-up song about missing a lover who has left you while you pine for them to return to your side and desperately try to erase their memory, which makes my mother's use of it to express missing her son kind of weird. That said, as break-up songs go, this is one of the best ones ever made. Waite's lyrics express the combination of longing and self-deception that perfectly encapsulates the emotions of a bad break-up.

Previous Musical Monday: I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder

Subsequent Musical Monday: Let's Go Crazy by Prince

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: What's Love Got to Do With It by Tina Turner

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Let's Go Crazy by Prince

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: What's Love Got to Do With It by Tina Turner

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Let's Go Crazy by Prince

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

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