Released 10 June 1982 Length 3:06 | Format 7" single
cassette Label Epic 14-03006 | |
B-side "Inoculated City" (1982)
"Rush" (1991) Writer(s) Topper Headon
Mick Jones
Paul Simonon
Joe Strummer | ||
"Should I Stay or Should I Go" is a song by the English punk rock band the Clash, from their album Combat Rock. It was written in 1981 and featured Mick Jones on lead vocals. It became the band's only number-one single on the UK Singles Chart, a decade after it was originally released. In November 2004, it was ranked at 228 on "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list. In 2009 it was ranked 42nd on VH1's program 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs.
Contents
Many rumours have arisen about the song's content, such as Jones' impending dismissal from the Clash or the rocky personal relationship between Jones and singer Ellen Foley, but Jones himself says:
It wasn't about anybody specific and it wasn't pre-empting my leaving The Clash. It was just a good rockin' song, our attempt at writing a classic ... When we were just playing, that was the kind of thing we used to like to play. – Mick Jones, 1991
The Spanish backing vocals were sung by Joe Strummer and Joe Ely:
On the spur of the moment I said 'I'm going to do the backing vocals in Spanish' ... We needed a translator so Eddie Garcia, the tape operator, called his mother in Brooklyn Heights and read her the lyrics over the phone and she translated them. But Eddie and his mum are Ecuadorian, so it's Ecuadorian Spanish that me and Joe Ely are singing on the backing vocals. – Joe Strummer, 1991
Releases
The single was reissued several times. It was first reissued in 1982, with a different cover as a double A-side with "Straight to Hell" and with "Cool Confusion" as its B-side. It was reissued again in 1983, with "First Night Back in London" on side two, and then for a third time in 1991, with "Rush" by Mick Jones' group Big Audio Dynamite II as a double A-side, with a remix of "Rush" as its B-side (see the table below).
Live recording of the song was released as a part of the album, Live at Shea Stadium, which featured a concert on 13 October 1982 in New York. The song's music video from that performance was included in DVD The Clash Live: Revolution Rock. Both disks were released on 6 October 2008.