“I Missed Again” by Phil Collins

“I Missed Again” is a song written by English musician Phil Collins. The song is basically about the intense anger and frustration Collins felt over his first wife, Andrea Bertorelli’s unfaithfulness and subsequent divorce.

Collins began working on “I Missed Again” and several other songs, including the legendary “In the Air Tonight” for his debut solo album “Face Value” shortly after Bertorelli divorced him in 1979. It is worth noting that prior to the divorce, Collins had caught Bertorelli red handed having an affair with an acquaintance.

After the divorce, Collins reportedly spent several weeks all by himself in his home in England pouring the anger and pain he felt over Bertorelli leaving him into “I Missed Again”. This same pain and anger were inspirations behind the majority of the other songs on “Face Value”, most notably “In the Air Tonight”.

So simply put, the song is a song about the sadness and frustration Collins was going through after Bertorelli left him.

Facts about “I Missed Again”

Collins wrote both the lyrics and music of “I Missed Again”.

The song was produced by Collins along with Hugh Padgham.

The original demo of the song was titled “I Miss You, Babe”. However, after rewriting the song’s lyrics, Collins changed the title to “I Missed Again”.

Collins played a number of instruments on the song, including the piano and the drums.

Unfortunately for Collins, despite the song being critically acclaimed, it was unable to reach the number one position in any chart. In the United Kingdom, it peaked at the number 14 spot. On the US Billboard Hot 100, the song peaked at number 19.

Longtime collaborator and friend of Collins’ Daryl Stuermer played guitar on the song. Also, the Indian-born American violinist and singer L. Shankar contributed violins to the song.

The song’s tenor sax solo was played by the late English jazz tenor saxophonist Ronnie Scott.

When was “I Missed Again” released?

Collins released it on February 27th, 1981. It was the second of the four singles used in promoting “Face Value”.

Popularity in the Sports Industry

“I Missed Again” is pretty popular in the sports industry, especially with the likes of:

• snooker
• basketball
• football

The song was featured in a promotional commercial by National Basketball Association in the late 1980s.

NBC Sunday Night Football played this song during the Chicago Bears vs Los Angeles Rams game on 17^th November, 2019. The song was played after Eddy Piñeiro missed a goal.