Robbed hit of the week 10/21/24 - blink-182's "I Miss You"...

 

 

"I Miss You" - blink-182

from the album Blink-182 (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #42 

 

Today's song comes from the pop-punk band blink-182, who had made it into the top ten on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the beginning of 2000 with "All The Small Things" from their album Enema Of The State. The trio followed this album up with a live release, The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show, which had one new studio recording with "Man Overboard", which was a thinly veiled recount of the troubles with alcoholism from departed drummer Raynor. The song took two weeks at #2 on the Alternative Rock chart, while "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #117 in the fall of 2000. The album did well for a live set from a group with just one "big" album reaching #8 on the Billboard 200 and selling over a half million.

 

The following year, Hoppus, Delonge, and Barker returned with their fourth studio effort Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (yes, the puns). The lead single, "The Rock Show", scored their third consecutive #2 hit of the Alternative Rock chart, while stalling at #71 on the pop Hot 100 (it was bigger in the UK, hitting #14).  The album topped the Billboard 200 for a week, spending over a year on the tally. While they were on a break in 2002, DeLonge and Barker recorded a harder-edged album with Finn producing as a side project Box Car Racer, which had a top ten Alternative Rock hit with "I Feel So" (#8 Alternative), and the album cresting at #12 on the Billboard 200. 

 

The group reconvened in 2003 for their next studio album, which eschewed the puns and was just eponymous, which usually portends a change in their sound. And that was true, as the set was much less snarky and more introspective and dark. However, the lead single from the set, "Feeling This", despite sounding different, was about, well, carnal relations.  Pop radio gave the song a pass, but their command of their fanbase helped it do well on rock stations, where it spent three weeks at #2 on Billboard's Alternativee Rock radio chart. 

For the second release from the record, the trio put out "I Miss You". Written by the threesome, the song has them cursing the memory of a long-dead love affair, where the thoughts from it are perceived as more of a haunting than nostalgia. The production from Jerry Finn is pretty dynamic and feeds into the trio's self-admitted emulation of the Cure on the track. The goth-ballad nature of the music video drives the message home...

While "I Miss You" scored blink-182 a second #1 hit on Billboard's Alternative Rock radio chart, as well as rising to #15 on their Mainstream Top-40 list and #24 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format, the single stalled right under the top-40 on the Hot 100 in May of 2004. Internationally, the single made the top ten in Czechia (#6), the United Kingdom (#8), New Zealand (#8), and Canada (#10 Airplay), while reaching the top-40 in Australia (#13), Ireland (#21), and Germany (#32). The blink-182 album, released in November of 2003, came in at #3 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a million copies. 

The third single from the self-titled album, "Down", peaked at #10 on the Alternative Rock radio chart, and made the British top-40 at #24. It was followed by "Always", which hit #39 on the Alternative list, and scored a fourth top-40 in the UK at #36. 

So....

After I have covered "All The Small Things" in the beginning of 2022, Hoppus and Barker had brought in Matt Skiba for two albums in the late 2010s. But after a battle with cancer, Hoppus and DeLonge put their difference aside and reunited the original group (casting Skiba out in the process). They released One More Time... in 2023, which scored a pair of #1 rock radio hits that also made the Hot 100 with "Edging" (#61) and "One More Time" (#62). Their most recent single, "All In My Head", sits at #9 on the Rock & Alternative Airplay and Alternative Airplay charts.

(7/10)

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Here's the band on the Pepsi Smash live TV show...

and lastly, at Lollapalooza this year...