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.'" Composition 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. Hoppus and DeLonge's vocal range spans from F#2 to F#4. "I Miss You" is an all-acoustic affair, featuring a piano, cello, acoustic bass guitar, and a "brushstroked hip-hop groove." The song's production was very layered, requiring multiple tracks. "There's probably 50 tracks of instruments going on the record," DeLonge said. 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." Reception Commercial performance "I Miss You" was sent to radio in early 2004. The song performed best on Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, where it peaked at number one for two weeks. The song also charted at number 15 on the Pop Songs chart, and number 24 on the Adult Pop Songs chart. On the Billboard Hot 100, the song reached number 42, and also peaked at number 44 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart. Outside the United States, "I Miss You" performed best in the United Kingdom and New Zealand; in both countries it charted at number eight. It also charted at number 13 in Australia, and number 21 in Ireland. "I Miss You" was supported by a controversial initiative dubbed "spin buys" by Billboard, in which labels, in Blink's case Geffen, spent thousands of dollars per week to have singles played multiple times from midnight to 6am at small and middle-market radio chains. While overnight airplay at radio at that time was "nothing new for the recording industry," label-sponsored spin-programs had risen considerably in popularity in 2004. By May 2004, the track had accumulated more than 50,000 spins at radio, and more than 100,000 by July. The song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on October 25, 2004, for sales of over 500,000. Critical reception "I Miss You" received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Jesse Lord of IGN praised