Missing You
Probably most famous for his 1984 number one hit “Missing You” has proven himself as one of the UK’s top rock vocalists. John grew up in Lancaster England and had his first musical success with ‘The Babys’ quickly moving to an impressive solo career in the early 80s with the successful ‘Ignition’ and ‘No Brakes’ albums. 
It was the ‘No Brakes’ track ‘Missing You’ that catapulted Waite to massive international chart success. (Original version here)
In the late 80s John regrouped with former Baby’s musicians Jonathan Cain and Ricky Phillips and together with the amazing talented Deen Castronovo and Neal Schon formed .
This era was music gold for what we describe as ‘love rock’ working with songwriter Diane Warren they released the number one hit “When I see you Smile” in 1989. Warren a songwriter of epic success has written literally hundreds of famous songs performed by some of the World’s most successful artists. These include Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak my Heart” and Aerosmith’s “I don’t want to miss a thing” (Check out Diane’s website here).
Bad English were a breath of fresh air in comparison to the state of pop music in the late 80s. In many ways these songs were the soundtrack to many relationships in the late 80s and early 90s.
Romances blossomed. People got together listening to “When I see you Smile”, they lived through the good and bad times of the “Price of Love”, they hit hard times with “Good times don’t last” and finally split up listening to “Missing You” This was the classic rock idealistic type of love we all hoped existed. The idea of someone’s smile enabling us to face the world inspired to keep striving for perfection it perhaps even lead us to measure the relationships we were in with a slightly scewed rule. Bad English had a song for every emotive experience both good and bad, the music was solace on CD.
Bad English were one of the first bands I listened to for their vocal and lyrical qualities. Guitarists generally seek out guitar bands yet Bad English wasn’t just about the brilliant playing of Neal Schon but about the tremendiously powerful vocals offered by John Waite. It was disappointing Bad English only released two albums. A live album was rumoured but never came to pass with the band breaking up in 1992. Post ”Backlash” and the split a further best of album was released a few years later.
During the Bad English years John still worked as a solo artist and performed the song “Deal for Life” for the Tom Cruise film ‘Days of Thunder‘. This was again John Waite at his best and to be honest the song was the only reason to watch the film. It was sad to discover song only appears for about 10 seconds, on the radio, in the background of an office ! it deserved considerably more. Incidentally if anyone knew were to find a watchable version of the video for this song we would love to see it. The one on YouTube is pretty terrible quality.
John Waite hasn’t been sitting still, as well as working with Ringo Starr’s ‘All Starr Band’ he returned to his solo career releasing a further five successful albums with the most recent “Downtown : Journey of a Heart“ offering John’s career in the form of a musical journey. The release is a specially selected list of his best work re-recorded, it includes the duet with Alison Krauss (”Missing You”) (featured above) as well as re-recordings of other songs John made famous such as The Babys’ “Isn’t It Time”, Bad English’s “When I See You Smile.” and ‘New York City Girl.”
The new version of ‘Missing You’ demonstrates it is song as popular as ever. In addition to the 2007 duet with Alison Krauss the song has been covered by Tina Turner in 96, Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando 98, and Rod Stewart in 2006. It has even found its way on to computer games like Grand Theft Auto and the song has appeared (as a special version) in Brokeback Mountain (View video here) with the original appearing in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and What’s Love Got to Do with It.
John Waite’s music is a vivid Aide-mémoire, each song bringing back a different event or experience. This is music to return to again and again. John’s music is intensely melodic and perfectly constructed, ballad rock doesn’t get much better than this.
Will Bad English ever reform ? Well given the current climate of bands getting back together who can say…. but, sometimes though, musical chapters are best left closed could anyone recreate the brilliance of early 90s classic melodic rock ?
Links:
John Waite (Music)
Bad English
John Waite on MySpace
