Miss You (Rolling Stones song)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Miss You" is a 1978 hit song by The Rolling Stones, from their album Some Girls. The 12" version of the song runs over eight minutes and features additional instrumentation and solos, particularly on guitar. It was remixed by Bob Clearmountain, then an upcoming mixer and engineer. This song, the first edit the Stones did for a 12" single, also contains tape repeats and an additional set of lyrics in the second verse, after the line "Hey, let's go mess and fool around you know, like we used to."
Inspiration and recording
"Miss You" was written by singer Mick Jagger while jamming with keyboardist Billy Preston during rehearsals for the March 1977 El Mocambo club gigs (yielding Side Three of the Love You Live album). Although guitarist Keith Richards is credited for co-writing, Jagger is generally regarded as the principal composer.
Several of the songs on 1976's Black and Blue had boasted vague dance influences, and certain songs such as "Hot Stuff" were essentially compromises between Mick Jagger's growing interest in contemporary dance music and Keith Richard's obsession with reggae. "Miss You" was the first Rolling Stones single with prominent disco influences however, most noticeably in Charlie Watts' thumping, four-on-the-floor drum beat, and in Bill Wyman's funky, grooving bass-lines, which provide another riff in addition to the main melody. That melody, sung in playful falsetto by Jagger, or else intoned by a chorus of dreamy, borderline-campy backup singers, forms the principal hook used throughout the track, often underlined by Sugar Blue's harmonica lines and incisive solos.
Unlike most of the Stones songs on Some Girls, "Miss You" features several studio musicians. In addition to Sugar Blue, Ian McLagan supplies electric piano, which fits into the overall groove of the song to the point that it is barely audible, and Mel Collins provides the glitzy saxophone solos heard during the instrumental break.
Release and aftermath
"Miss You" would be one of the last truly huge Stones singles, becoming their eighth number-one hit in the U.S. on its initial release in 1978. The song was originally nearly nine minutes long (this uncut version appeared as a 12" disco single), but ended up being edited to four-and-a-half minutes for the album version, and a further-edited three-and-a-half minutes for the radio single. A 7:31 edit of the longer version appears on the Rarities 1971-2003 compilation album. The B-side of the single was another album track, "Far Away Eyes", a light-hearted country and western tune sung by Jagger in a pronounced drawl.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine rated "Miss You" number 496 in its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The song was remixed by legendary west coast hip-hop producer Dr. Dre for the soundtrack to Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Justin Timberlake collaborated with The Stones for a live performance of Miss You at the Toronto Rocks festival. During which Mick Jagger inserted the chorus of Justin's hit Cry Me a River during the song's breakdown.
