Missing (Everything but the Girl song)

"Missing"
Single by Everything but the Girl
from the album Amplified Heart
B-side Remix
Released 8 August 1994
16 October 1995 (Todd Terry remix)
Format CD single, CD maxi, 12" maxi
Genre Pop, House, lounge
Length 4:04
Label Blanco Y Negro (UK)
Atlantic (U.S.)
Writer(s) Tracey Thorn
Ben Watt
Producer Ben Watt, Todd Terry
Certification Gold (US)
Everything but the Girl singles chronology
"Rollercoaster"
(1994)		 "Missing"
(1994/1995)		 "Walking Wounded"
(1996)
Music sample
Everything But The Girl - "Missing" (Todd Terry Club Mix)

"Missing" is the title of a song written and recorded by British pop music duo Everything but the Girl. The song was released in August 1994 as a single from the band's 1994 album Amplified Heart. It is Everything But The Girl's best-known success and it is credited with revitalising the duo's musical career and changing the team's music to a successful electronic music style. The song reached number-one in Canada, Germany, and Italy. It peaked at number 2 in Australia, Belgium (Wallonia, Denmark, France, Switzerland, and the United States.

Contents

Original release and remix

Prior to "Missing", Everything but the Girl was most known as a folk and jazz team. They had released eight albums prior to Amplified Heart and had a number-three UK singles chart success in 1988 ("I Don't Want to Talk About It"), but were relatively unknown in the United States. "Missing" was recorded as a relaxed-sounding guitar-based popular music song that had earned modest broadcasting airplay on U.S. Adult Contemporary radio. The duo gave the track to house music producer Todd Terry to remix for nightclubs. The resulting dance version of "Missing" became a worldwide success, matching Everything But the Girl's UK best chart score of number three in November 1995 and scoring number one on the German singles chart. The song became the duo's first U.S. Billboard Hot 100 entry, and after a long climb it peaked at number two during 1996 (in its twenty-eighth chart week), eventually scoring fifty-five weeks on the chart (a record at the time which has since been broken — the single is today the ninth-longest charting song on the U.S. Hot 100). One record it has retained is that "Missing" was the first ever single to spend an uninterrupted year on the U.S. Hot 100.[1] (In addition to this, "Missing" spent over twenty weeks on the UK charts on its way to gaining a platinum disc for the duo - an extremely rare feat for a record that was never a British number one.)

Tracey Thorn later explained to Rolling Stone that the song was originally intended as a dance-oriented track:[2]

It was written with that idea in mind, totally... we put on sort of a laid back house groove instead. Then when we gave it to Todd, he took it in a really, really strong New York house direction, which had a real simplicity to it, but it was very infectious.

After the global success of "Missing", Everything but the Girl ventured into a more electronic/house/drum and bass direction with their next albums Walking Wounded and Temperamental.

Even with its success in the mainstream and in nightclubs, the song never entered the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart. Everything but the Girl would eventually amass four U.S. dance chart number-ones, with singles released after "Missing".

Track listings

CD maxi
  1. "Missing" (Todd Terry Club Mix (Blanco/Eternal Radio Edit)) — 3:52
  2. "Missing" (Todd Terry Club Mix) — 4:58
  3. "Missing" (Rockin' Blue Mix) — 7:47
  4. "Missing" (Chris & James Full On Club Mix) — 8:36
  5. "Missing" (Amplified Heart Album Mix) — 4:04
  6. "Missing" (Todd Terry Tee's Piece) — 4:34
12" maxi
  1. "Missing" (Todd Terry club mix) — 4:53
  2. "Missing" (Rockin' blue mix) — 7:47
  3. "Missing" (Todd Terry lite mix) — 4:05
  4. "Missing" (Todd Terry tee's beat) — 2:48
  5. "Missing" (Chris & James Full on club mix) — 8:36
CD maxi - Remixes
  1. "Missing" (album version) — 4:04
  2. "Missing" (Little Joey remix) — 5:03
  3. "Missing" (Chris & James full on club mix) — 8:35
  4. "Missing" (ultramarine remix) — 5:26

Official versions

Charts and sales

Peak positions

Chart (1994) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart[3] 69
Chart (1995/96) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart[4] 2
Austrian Singles Chart[4] 6
Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart[4] 10
Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart[4] 2
Canadian RPM Top Singles 1
Canadian RPM Dance Chart[5] 1
Danish Singles Chart[6] 2
Dutch Top 40[7] 3
Finnish Singles Chart[4] 11
French SNEP Singles Chart[4] 2
German Singles Chart[8] 1
Irish Singles Chart[9] 3
Italian Singles Chart 1
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart[4] 14
Norwegian Singles Chart[4] 5
Swiss Singles Chart[4] 2
UK Singles Chart[10] 3
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[11] 2
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary[11] 6
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs[11] 70

End of year charts

End of year chart (1995) Position
Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart[12] 58
Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart[13] 73
Dutch Top 40[7] 9
French Singles Chart[14] 76
End of year chart (1996) Position
Australian Singles Chart[15] 7
Austrian Singles Chart[16] 39
Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart[17] 72
Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart[18] 17
French Singles Chart[19] 29
Swiss Singles Chart[20] 24
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[21] 12

Certifications

Country Certification Date Sales certified
France[22] Gold 1996 250,000
Germany[23] Gold 1996 150,000
Norway[24] Gold 1996 5,000
UK[25] Platinum 1 January 1996 600,000
U.S.[26] Gold 24 January 1996 500,000

Chart successions

Preceded by
"Baby Baby" by Corona		 Italian Singles chart number-one single
6 May 1995 - 10 June 1995 (6 weeks)		 Succeeded by
"Scream" by Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson
Preceded by
"Beautiful Life" by Ace of Base		 Canadian RPM Dance chart number-one single
February 5, 1996 - February 19, 1996 (3 weeks)		 Succeeded by
"Sexual Healing" by Max-A-Million
Preceded by
"Time" by Hootie & the Blowfish		 Canadian number-one single
19 February 1996 – 4 March 1996 (3 weeks)		 Succeeded by
"The World I Know by Collective Soul
Preceded by
"Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio featuring L.V.		 German number-one single
2 February 1996 – 9 February 1996 (2 weeks)		 Succeeded by
"Spaceman by Babylon Zoo

Cover versions

References

  1. ^ Missing Songfacts
  2. ^ Feldman, Christopher G (2000). "The Billboard Book of No. 2 Singles". ISBN 0-8230-7695-4 (Billboard books). 
  3. ^ UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved 7 April 2008)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Missing", in various singles charts Lescharts.com (Retrieved 7 April 2008)
  5. ^ Canada dance peak
  6. ^ Billboard January 20, 1996. Billboard. http://books.google.com/books?id=3g4EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA47&dq=Billboard%20%22denmark%22%20%22everything%20but%20the%20girl%22&hl=da&pg=PA47#v=onepage&q=Billboard%20%22denmark%22%20%22everything%20but%20the%20girl%22&f=false. Retrieved 2010-11-30. 
  7. ^ a b "Single top 100 over 1995" (in Dutch) (pdf). Top40. http://www.top40.nl/pdf/Top%20100/top%20100%20-%201995.pdf. Retrieved 17 April 2010. 
  8. ^ "Everything but the Girl singles, German Singles Chart" (in German). musicline. http://www.musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/artist/Everything+but+the+Girl/single. Retrieved 17 April 2010. 
  9. ^ Irish Single Chart Irishcharts.ie (Retrieved 7 April 2008)
  10. ^ UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved 7 April 2008)
  11. ^ a b c Billboard Allmusic.com (Retrieved 28 August 2008)
  12. ^ 1995 Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart Ultratop.be (Retrieved 28 August 2008)
  13. ^ 1995 Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart Ultratop.be (Retrieved 28 August 2008)
  14. ^ 1995 French Singles Chart Disqueenfrance.com (Retrieved 30 January 2009)
  15. ^ 1996 Australian Singles Chart aria.com (Retrieved 28 August 2008)
  16. ^ 1996 Austrian Singles Chart Austriancharts.at (Retrieved 28 August 2008)
  17. ^ 1996 Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart Ultratop.be (Retrieved 28 August 2008)
  18. ^ 1996 Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart Ultratop.be (Retrieved 28 August 2008)
  19. ^ 1996 French Singles Chart Disqueenfrance.com (Retrieved 28 August 2008)
  20. ^ 1996 Swiss Singles Chart Hitparade.ch (Retrieved 28 August 2008)
  21. ^ "Billboard Top 100 - 1996". http://longboredsurfer.com/charts.php?year=1996. Retrieved 2010-08-27. 
  22. ^ French certifications Disqueenfrance.com (Retrieved 28 August 2008)
  23. ^ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank ('Missing')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie. http://www.musikindustrie.de/gold_platin_datenbank/?action=suche&strTitel=Missing&strInterpret=&strTtArt=alle&strAwards=checked. Retrieved 28 August 2008. 
  24. ^ Norwegian certifications Ifpi.no (Retrieved 28 August 2008)
  25. ^ UK certifications Bpi.co.uk (Retrieved 28 August 2008)
  26. ^ U.S. certifications riaa.com (Retrieved 28 August 2008)
Everything but the Girl
Discography
Studio albums
Compilation albums
Singles
"Night and Day" • "Each and Every One" • "Mine" • "Native Land" • "When All's Well" • "Angel" • "Come On Home" • "Don't Leave Me Behind" • "These Early Days (remix)" • "I Always Was Your Girl" • "I Don't Want to Talk About It" • "Love Is Here Where I Live" • "Driving" • "Take Me" • "Old Friends" • "Twin Cities" • "Rollercoaster" • "Missing" • "Walking Wounded" • "Wrong" • "Single" • "Before Today" • "The Future of the Future (Stay Gold)" • "Five Fathoms" • "Blame" • "Temperamental" • "Lullaby of Clubland" • "Tracey in My Room" • "Corcovado"
Other notable songs
Video albums
Related articles
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Albums
EPs
Singles
Other songs
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