I Miss You (Blink-182 song)

The song was co-written by guitarist Tom DeLonge (left) and bassist Mark Hoppus (right), both seen here in 2004.

"I Miss You" was recorded in 2003,^[1] and began production at the Rubin's House, a rented home in the San Diego luxury community of Rancho Santa Fe. The song was written using the same method with which the band wrote "Feeling This"; namely, DeLonge and Hoppus would discuss themes and then set off to separate rooms of the home to write alone.^[2] The two would first have a discussion about the themes of the song "so that we were on the same page," and then they would go away to write, putting both parts together at the end.^[2] Tom wrote the second verse, and Mark wrote the first verse and the chorus. In 2018, Mark shared the original handwritten lyrics on Twitter.^[3][4] "Mark was always really, really good with words, so a lot of times I would ask him for help with things, to get help with how I say things better [...] But we never really explained song meanings to each other," said DeLonge.^[2] Hoppus referenced Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas at the request of Barker, with the lines "We can live like Jack and Sally if we want... and we'll have Halloween on Christmas", toward his then-wife, Shanna Moakler.^[2][5]

The trio struggled recording "I Miss You" at first, originally employing a completely different chorus reminiscent of what they considered adult contemporary music.^[2] The track was directly inspired by the Cure song "The Love Cats".^[2][5] In expanding on the song's lyrical meaning, DeLonge said: "The song's more about the vulnerability and kind of heart-wrenching pain you feel when you're in love and when you're a guy and you're trying to tell a girl, 'Don't waste your time coming and talking to me because, in my head at least, you probably already gave me up a long time ago.'"^[6]

The song is composed in the key of B major and is set in the time signature of common time with a tempo of 110 beats per minute.^[7] Hoppus and DeLonge's vocal range spans from F#₂ to F#₄.^[7] The instruments are all acoustic, featuring a piano, cello, acoustic bass guitar, and a "brushstroked hip-hop groove."^[8][9] The song's production was very layered, requiring multiple tracks. "There's probably 50 tracks of instruments going on the record," DeLonge said.^[6] In an interview with The Washington Post, he re-estimated the amount: "It's got about 70 tracks of instruments, all of which are organic/acoustic, none of them plugged-in."^[10]

The song has been called emo^{[11][12][13][14]} and alternative rock.^[15]

The song's music video is shot in the style of a 1930s film, and find the trio performing in a haunted house with ghosts circling around.^[6] Jonas Åkerlund, who also directed the Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" and Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful," directed the video, which was filmed on December 17, 2003, in Los Angeles.^[6] "He's done amazing videos," DeLonge said. "We kind of had an idea of what we wanted to do, but it's gonna be interesting because with a guy like that, they bring so much artistic vision to the project. You don't really know what's going on in their head, like how they wanna film it and all that stuff."^[6] It also features Mark Hoppus playing a double bass, inspired by Phil Thornalley of the Cure's use of one in the video for "The Love Cats".^[5]

The song achieved heavy airplay on music video channels. It achieved its best airplay on Canada's MuchMusic, where it was the number one most-played video for the week ending February 22, 2004, as monitored by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. For Fuse, the song was the eighth-most played that week, eleventh for MTV, and fourteenth for MTV2.^[35] It continued to be a strong performer on Fuse and MuchMusic into May, with the issue dated May 15 reporting it at numbers 9 and eleven, respectively.^[36] It remained in the top 30 most-played at MuchMusic into January 2005.^[37]

Several artists have covered "I Miss You", including Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer,^[38] This Wild Life,^[39] Slowly Slowly,^[40] and Yung Pinch.^[41] Various indie artists mockingly covered the song in 2020 for a viral response to Gal Gadot's ill-timed "Imagine" cover. The artists included Eric Slick, Mac DeMarco, Danny Brown, Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold, Natalie Prass, Kevin Morby, Caroline Rose, Whitney, among others.^[42] Fred Again played a remix of the song as part of his 2023 Coachella set,^[43] while Chilean band Kudai used the drum sample of the song on their single "Escapar" from their 2004 album Vuelo. It has also been used as a cover for American Idol contestants.^[44] DeLonge has also covered the song with his other band, Angels & Airwaves.^[45]

The song was a primary inspiration for The Chainsmokers' 2016 hit single "Closer". According to Chainsmokers member Andrew Taggart, the duo repeatedly listened to the song while writing it.^[46] In 2019, American singer-songwriter Skye employed an interpolation of "I Miss You" in his single "Voices", posthumously featuring rapper XXXTentacion.^[47] In other forms of entertainment, the song appeared in several video games, including SingStar Amped and Rock Band 2, and was also featured on the television show Legit.

Prior to "Closer", on which she is featured, Halsey became infamous online for a 2015 video that showed her performing a cover of "I Miss You" inside of a mall. In the video, Halsey, who was 20 at the time and had gained a small following on the social media app Tumblr, was hosting an impromptu meetup with her fans. In an 2025 interview, she said: "I went and met all these fans. It was the first time I'd ever met a fan before, and they were like, 'Will you sing?' and I was like, I never sang outside of my bedroom before." The video has been regarded as an early career breakthrough for the singer.^[48]

"I Miss You" continues to enjoy significant and widespread popularity decades after its release; it is one of several songs to count over one billion streams on Spotify, joining the platform's "Billions Club".^[49] DeLonge's singing style on "I Miss You"–particularly his verse lyrics "Where are you / and I'm so sorry" and pronunciation of the word head as "yead" in the chorus^[50]—has been widely referenced throughout popular culture, and is considered something of a meme.^[51][52] DeLonge has publicly embraced the attention.^[53][54] Finneas once described DeLonge's delivery: "Tom comes into that song like he was on a balcony and he jumped off the balcony onto the song."^[55] A 10-hour YouTube loop of only DeLonge's verse from 2015 went viral; an A.V. Club commentator dubbed it oddly "hypnotic."^[56]

The song has been a staple of the band's live performances since its release. It is typically ended with an extended coda that builds into a crescendo.^[57] Chris Payne of Stereogum described "I Miss You" the band's most enduring song, highlighting its gothic embrace of the Hot Topic scene.^[58] Variety ranked it as one of the best emo songs of all time,^[59] and Rolling Stone ranked it among the "250 Greatest Songs of the 21st Century So Far" in 2025, praising its "vulnerability and mature candor."^[60] "I Miss You" has been considered such a singular track in the band's ouvre that later hits by the band, like "One More Time", emulate the brush-stroked approach.^[61]

Per the Blink-182 liner notes.^[5]

Blink-182

• Mark Hoppus – acoustic bass, vocals
• Tom DeLonge – acoustic guitar, vocals
• Travis Barker – brushed drum loop

Additional personnel

• Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. – keyboards