Natalie Cole, Miss You Like Crazy | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 45^th edition of Throwback Vibez (2024), we recollect and reflect on “Miss You Like Crazy” by the late, great Natalie Cole. 

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 45^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2024), we recollect and reflect on “Miss You Like Crazy”, performed by Natalie Cole.

The late, great Natalie Cole once sang, “I miss you like crazy, I miss you like crazy / Ever since you went away, every hour, every day.” “Miss You Like Crazy” marks a stellar, heartfelt vocal performance from the Grammy-winning, musical legend.  “Miss You Like Crazy” was graced Cole’s 1989 album, Good to Be Back.  It was written by Gerry Coffin, Michael Masser, and  Preston W. Glass.  Masser produced this delightful ballad, which reached no. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Good to Be Back was nominated (as a whole) for the Grammy for the now defunct Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, though lost to Giving You The Best That I Got by Anita Baker.

The instrumental supporting Natalie Cole is awesome – idiomatic of 1980s adult contemporary R&B through and through.  That said, the biggest reason why “Miss You Like Crazy” is a success are those distinct, expressive vocals by Cole.  She sounds beautiful conveying the heartbroken lyrics of the ballad.  “I remember the things that we used to do,” she sings in the first verse, continuing, “A kiss in the rain ‘til the sun shined through / I tried to deny it but I’m still in love with you.” Honesty is the best policy. Similarly, in the second verse, Cole asks her ex, “So hold me and tell me it’s not too late / We’re so good together, we’re starting forever now.” It all comes down to the chorus – the crème de la crème:  

“And I miss you like crazy, I miss you like crazy

No matter what I say or do

There’s just no getting over you

And I miss you, baby, I miss you, baby

All the tender love you gave me

When a feeling gets this strong

You know the real thing comes along.”

Clearly, Natalie wants to reunite with him – she’s gotta have him! All told, “Miss You Like Crazy” ranks among the tippy top of the illustrious Natalie Cole catalog. 

Natalie Cole // Good to Be Back // Craft Recordings / Concord // 1989

Natalie Cole, Miss You Like Crazy: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 45 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Craft Recordings / Concord; OpenClipart-Vectors, Speedy McVroom via  Pixabay]