Because I’m me, and because I spent my high school years in the ‘80s — which was simultaneously an amazing time and a catastrophic time for music — the Christmas Eve news that Jeremy Ebobisse signed with LAFC1 and the Dec. 19 news that the New England Revolution sent a (metaphorical) truck full of GAM to Inter Miami for Leo Campana got me thinking about John Waite.
John Waite, English solo artist, ginger, and eventual member of supergroup Bad English (although supergroup is doing a bit of work there) had a 1984 No. 1 hit — the most notable thing he’s ever done — with an earworm called “Missing You.”2
The whole premise of the song is that the protagonist has broken up with someone, and asserts “I ain’t missing you at all” throughout the song (in the gruff and insistent vocal style that places him in company with other similar ‘80s male singers like Bryan Adams, Corey Hart, and John Cougar Mellencamp).
It ends with the reflection, “No matter what my heart might say/I ain't missing you at all,” which clearly signals that he’s trying to be bravely stoic through the heartbreak, but he does indeed miss his former lover. I mean, “Missing You” is the title after all!
(Trust me, I’m working toward a thesis here.)
