THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

160-Rolling Stones-Miss You.

1978-Number 3 single.

Best Bit-At 2.20. The Rolling Stones once sang ‘It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll But I Like It,’ but this isn’t just Rock ‘N’ Roll, it’s ‘Disco’ as well.

By 1978 the Rolling Stones had already been superstars for at least 15 years, and had been at the top of the tree for longer than 99% of other artists could ever dream about. Their last truly critically acclaimed Album had been 1972’s ‘Exile on Main Street,’ and although the three studio Albums since then still showed them performing at a high level, the onset of ‘Punk’,and ‘Disco’, and also lots of new kids on the block, were all adding up to a steady decline in the bands popularity.
Like Lennon and McCartney, the songwriting team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards also legally shared song writing credits regardless of whom had the most input. In 1977 Keith Richards was in trouble over his highly publicised heroin possession bust in Canada, and was waiting to find out if he might be sent to jail. This gave Jagger the freedom to expand his own musical barriers and experiment with modern ‘R&B’ and Disco Music.

‘Miss You’ started out life in March 1977 when Jagger was jamming with keyboardist Billy Preston, (1946-2006) (see also best songs 737) the pair came up with the basic track, but Bill Wyman (the Rolling Stones bassist) claims that it was he who wrote the ‘Bass Riff,’ which he also performed on the track.’When I did the riff for ‘Miss You,’ which made the song, and every band in the world copied it for the next year, Rod Stewart, all of them, it still said Jagger/Richards. When I wrote the riff for ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’, it became Jagger/Richards and that’s the way it was. It just became part and parcel of the way the band functioned.’

‘Miss You’ was the first of four singles released from the Rolling Stones (see also best songs 933-662-452 and 77) 14th UK, and 16th U.S. studio release ‘Some Girls,’ the Album has gone on to be the groups best ever selling studio Album with sales in excess of six million copies worldwide.’Miss You’ was the first Rolling Stones song to receive a remix, taking the original 4.48 Album version up to 8.38 for the ‘Special Disco Version,’ which was first issued on Pink 12 inch vinyl. The bands drummer Charlie Watts (1941-2021) has said,’A lot of those songs like ‘Miss You’ were heavily influenced by going to the discos. You can hear it in a lot of those four on the floor rhythms, and the Philadelphia style drumming. Mick and I used to go to discos a lot… It was a great period. I remember being in Munich and coming back from a club with Mick singing one of the Village People songs – ‘Y.M.C.A.’, I think it was – and Keith went mad, but it sounded great on the dance floor.’

‘Hey, what’s the matter man? We’re gonna come around at twelve with some Puerto Rican girls that are just dyin’ to meet you. We’re gonna bring a case of wine, hey, let’s go mess and fool around you know, like we used to.’