John Waite, singer of "Missing You" and "When I See You Smile," to perform in Rochester
The 2022 Think Bank Down by the Riverside free outdoor concert series continues this Sunday with the superb English-born singer John Waite.
Waite, best known for the 1984 megahit “Missing You,” will perform from a catalog of more than 40 years of music — including songs from his solo career, as well as his time with the groups Bad English and The Babys.
The show begins at 7 p.m. at Mayo Park. Rochester-based singer-songwriter Cole Allen will open for Waite with a blend of blues and rock.
Waite’s rise to stardom began in the late 1970s when, after making the rounds as a journeyman bassist, he discovered the power of his voice as the lead vocalist of The Babys. The group went on to have two top-20 charting songs with “Isn’t it Time” and “Every Time I Think of You.”
By the early 1980s, however, the group disbanded (in part, due to an incident in which a fan pulled Waite from the stage while he was performing an encore, seriously injuring Waite’s knee). What followed was a series of solo hits that made Waite a fixture of 1980s radio, with songs such as “Change” and “These Times Are Hard For Lovers.”
In 1984, Waite went on to release what would become his defining record, “Missing You.” The ballad became an international hit, reaching Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning Waite a Grammy nomination.
Flattering Waite even further was the list of artists who went on to cover the song, including Tina Turner, Brooks & Dunn, and Rod Stewart.
"I am always really touched that somebody wants to have a crack at it,” Waite said of the song. "When I was 15 or 16, in my hometown as an art student, I stood next to the jukebox at the Shakespeare Hotel and ‘Maggie May’ was playing. And then all of these years later, Rod (Stewart) sings ‘Missing You’ … It’s such a feeling of wonderment that somebody would come and sing my melody and my words and even take a shot at it.”
(To this day, Waite says his favorite version of “Missing You” is a 2007 duet he recorded with Alison Krauss. You can listen to that here.)
In 1988, what started as a reunion with his former Baby’s bandmates resulted in the formation of his next group, Bad English. A year later, the group released the ballad “When I See You Smile” — which reached Number 1 on the charts and was certified Gold.
The group’s tenure was brief, but Waite continued to write and record music as a solo artist — and in 1995 he released his personal favorite album, Temple Bar, which included the hit, "How Did I Get By Without You.”
"It was a watershed moment,” Waite said of the album. “I became a much different writer, and I became an artist. Not that I wasn't before, but I became bulletproof, whereas I would do anything without measuring what might happen. I just put it out."
Waite has released six albums since, including his 2022 EP Anything, which found the singer-songwriter best known for ballads of loneliness delivering a series of songs intended to evoke joy and positivity.
For him, he said, there is no choice but to continue writing music. “It's just part of who I am,” he explained. “A lot of the songs come almost fully formed in my mind. It's like you are driving a car, and it's got wheels on it and it's taking you wherever it wants to go. So, there are actually no rules to it. You just go along for ride, because that's the best part."
— If you go —
The show starts at 7 p.m. on Sunday, July 31 at Mayo Park (located behind the Mayo Civic Center and Rochester Art Center).
Admission to all DBTR shows is free and open to the public.
Blankets, lawn chairs, and coolers are welcome.
The following local vendors will be on site: Thesis Beer Project, Bleu Duck Truck, The Compadres, Minnie Street Rolls, and Carroll's Corn.
For a full summer concert lineup, visit Rochester Civic Music’s website.
