Last week, in a recap of the past thirty chart toppers, I made a lot of just how eccentrically the charts have been behaving over the past year or two. And happily, they show no signs of becoming predictable quite yet…
Should I Stay or Should I Go, by The Clash (their 1st and only #1)
2 weeks, from 3rd – 17th March 1991
For yes, we must sound the ‘random re-release’ klaxon one more time: The Clash score their sole UK #1. And once again, as with ‘The Joker’, it’s Levi’s Jeans we have to thank for giving this classic tune a new lease of life (the ad team knew how to pick them!)
We open with a nonchalantly cool intro. Two guitars have a little call-and-response, before a bass guitar so jagged it almost rips your speakers in two. It’s a simple riff, so easy and familiar that my immediate response is to dredge the memory banks to recall if it’s a cover version. It isn’t, but Mick Jones based it, knowingly or otherwise, on ‘Little Latin Lupe Lu’, a sixties garage-band classic.
The whole thing is loveably ramshackle, and a world away from the polished dance hits that have been the sound of the early 1990s. The guitars crackle, Joe Strummer sneers, and the band holler and screech the backing vocals in Spanish. The main lyrics meanwhile, tell the story of a toxic relationship: It’s always tease, tease, tease, You’re happy when I’m on my knees… and the chaotic ‘chorus’, such as it is, does its best to portray the frenzy of a conflicted mind.
The singer’s happy to remain, no matter the torture doled out, but by the end of the song we’re left none the wiser over whether he stays or goes. (I struggle to see how this helped to advertise jeans, but who am I to question…?) I’d call this record pretty poppy for The Clash, as well as assuming it was one of their early singles. But it was the 3rd release from their 1982 album ‘Combat Rock’, making #17 at the time. And despite coming five years after the band’s sixth and final studio album, this re-release was their first Top 10 hit, let alone their first number one.
Over the past few months, rock music has started to creep back in to the upper reaches of the charts (hurray!) If we start with ‘The Joker’s classic rock, then five of the past twelve #1s have been rock of one kind or another: indie rock (The Beautiful South), heavy metal (Iron Maiden), progressive rock (Queen) and now this. Is ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’ more classic rock? Or is it garage? Or is it our first real punk rock #1, a decade and a half too late…? Or should we simply not care, and just revel in proper rock ‘n’ roll enjoying its new-found moment in the sun?
The UK Number Ones Blog 
I am not sure that it important to classify music into genres any more as it used to be, as people have learned to enjoy many different preferences of music, but to me this song sounds like it is garage.
Yes, I’d probably go with garage rock, especially given what the riff was based on. Wikipedia lists it as punk rock, though…
Love this tune! It’s amazing what a jeans ad can do! 🙂
I make it the third number one from a Levi’s advert! ‘The Joker’ and ‘Stand By Me’ too (although that was also helped by the movie around the same time…)
Rating: 4/5
Great song. I’m not a diehard The Clash fan, but I really like a lot of their music. And London Calling the album is a masterpiece. This is a cool song. I’d classify it as garage punk, it’s not purely garage rock nor purely punk rock. I first got exposed to it when it was used in Stranger Things Season 1, which is probably why it’s so popular now on Spotify. Both this song and “Rock the Casbah” are terrific singles from Combat Rock.
YES! Finally yes yes yes! I haven’t liked one like this since The Joker popped up. I do agree…it’s garage rock and wonderful. 3 chords is all you need…maybe a 4th on some days.
Nah four is just showing off… : )
LOL…
The Clash were never a fave band of mine, not during punk (when I preferred Stranglers, Sex Pistols, Boomtown Rats among others) nor even during New Wave, though Bankrobber was a goodie and London Calling a significant moment, but by the time this came out in full-on New Wave/Synth 1982 it seemed a bit dated and washed over me in a cute singalong way. By 1991 I liked it more, but as a number one? Nah! Rock The Casbah was better, and if we’d gone for a proper Punk belated chart-topper my vote would have been for Anarchy In The UK which changed everything and still spits venom. That said Mick Jones beat this to number one in my charts by 5 years on the awesomely inventive and wonderful E=MC2 as part of Big Audio Dynamite.