It topped the US Cashbox chart for one week. Released on, "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (backed with "Child of the Moon") reached the top of the UK Singles Chart and peaked at number three in the United States.
Keith Richards – guitars, backing vocals.
Mick Jagger – lead vocals, backing vocals.
In his autobiography, Stone Alone, Bill Wyman has said that he came up with the song's distinctive main guitar riff on a piano without being credited for it. the funky, essential essence" following the psychedelia of Their Satanic Majesties Request Just a metaphor for getting out of all the acid things." And in a 1968 interview, Brian Jones described it as "getting back to. It's about having a hard time and getting out. Jagger said in a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone that the song arose "out of all the acid of Satanic Majesties. Humanities scholar Camille Paglia speculated that the song's lyrics might have been partly inspired by William Blake's poem " The Mental Traveller": "She binds iron thorns around his head / And pierces both his hands and feet / And cuts his heart out of his side / To make it feel both cold & heat." When Jagger asked what the noise was, Richards responded: "Oh, that's Jack – that's jumpin' Jack." The rest of the lyrics evolved from there. Richards has stated that he and Jagger wrote the lyrics while staying at Richards' country house, where they were awoken one morning by the sound of gardener Jack Dyer walking past the window. Just jam the mic right in the guitar and play it back through an extension speaker. Both acoustics were put through a Philips cassette recorder. The high-strung guitar was an acoustic, too. I learned that from somebody in George Jones' band in San Antonio in 1964. And there was another guitar over the top of that, but tuned to Nashville tuning. Then there was a capo on it, to get that really tight sound. Open D or open E, which is the same thing – same intervals – but it would be slackened down some for D. I used a Gibson Hummingbird acoustic tuned to open D, six string. Regarding the song's distinctive sound, guitarist Richards has said: Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, recording on "Jumpin' Jack Flash" began during the Beggars Banquet sessions of 1968.
2.2 Live version from Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!.
One of the group's most popular and recognisable songs, it has featured in films and been covered by numerous performers, notably Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Peter Frampton, Johnny Winter and Leon Russell. Called "supernatural Delta blues by way of Swinging London" by Rolling Stone magazine, the song was perceived by some as the band's return to their blues roots after the baroque pop and psychedelia heard on their preceding albums, Aftermath (1966), Between the Buttons (1967) and especially Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967). " Jumpin' Jack Flash" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones, released as a single in 1968. For the film, see Jumpin' Jack Flash (film).