WCSX Classic Cuts : Jumpin’ Jack Flash

WCSX Classic Cuts

The Rolling Stones: "Jumpin' Jack Flash"

The Hook: You can thank Keith Richards' gardener.

Album: Initially released as a non-album single, it later appeared on Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2).

Year: 1968

Writers: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

Stats: Peaked at number-three on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Background: Keith Richards tells us the idea didn't exactly come out of nowhere. It came from outside his window:

Keith Richards on how he and Mick Jagger were inspired to write The Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” OC:…to come. :30

“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.”

Tie-in: The Stones finished recording "Jumpin' Jack Flash" 50 years ago today.