Today, May 31st, is the 55th anniversary of The Rolling Stones' release of "Jumpin' Jack Flash." The 1968 non-album single first appeared on s Stones album just over a year later on the 1969 compilation Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2).
“Jumpin’ Jack Flash” was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, however former bassist Bill Wyman said he should've also been credited.
Richards once commented on how he and Mick Jagger were inspired to write the classic.He said, “Mick and I were in my house in England in the country and we’d been up all night and were just crashing out. And Mick was on the couch and I was in an armchair with a guitar and we were on the verge. And then suddenly the sound of these boots went by the window – clump, clump, clump – and woke Mick up and ‘What was that?’ I said, ‘Oh, that’s Jack.’ He was my gardener. He was leaping about a bit and I said, ‘Yeah, it’s jumping Jack.’ And then ‘flash’ came and suddenly we wide awake and we started to work. You never know when they’re going to come.”
Ex-Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman recalled that several months after he shared a melody with Keith Richards, it then reappeared in the completed song "Jumpin' Jack Flash," but that he never got credit for the song.
He said, "I kind of forgot about it, really, until we actually did it in the studio. And by that time, Mick had written these lyrics, 'Jumpin' Jack Flash, it's a gas, gas, gas.' Then when it came out, it said Jagger-Richards, which didn't kind of bother me at the time, really. I was very disappointed afterwards, after Keith admitted it in [a] Rolling Stone interview and on many television interviews that, 'Oh yeah, that was Bill's thing, that was.' When it was mentioned in my book, and people queried him, he said, 'He had nothing to do with it.' He completely reversed his opinions."
"Jumpin' Jack Flash" peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and to this day remains their most-played song in concert, totaling 1195 times.
[Source: Classic Hits Today]