Should I Stay or Should I Go in Stranger Things: Jonathan and Will’s song, scene by scene
Music · Season 1 · The Byers brothers’ song
A tape, a fort, a shed. In this article: the memory in the car, the stereo that switches on, the fort on the other side, the Morse code, the story of the track, then the night of November 12. At the end, the bond between the two brothers comes down to that choice.
Jonathan plays Should I Stay or Should I Go for his brother, and the track never leaves the house. In Stranger Things it runs through five episodes, from the tape to a November night in 1983 seen again years later.
The essentials
- The track: Should I Stay or Should I Go, The Clash
- The album: Combat Rock, track 3, released on May 14, 1982
- Vocals: Mick Jones, main writer
- Season 1: episodes 2, 4 and 7
- Season 2: episode 8, in the shed
- Season 5: episode 1, The Crawl, flashback of November 12, 1983
- The choice: the Duffer brothers, according to Nora Felder
- The compilation: October 27, 2017, Legacy Recordings
Contents
The memory in the car
The police chief refuses to let Jonathan go to the home of Will Byers’s father. Jonathan first puts up posters at the high school. He leaves for Indianapolis anyway. In the car, Should I Stay or Should I Go comes on, and the track brings back a memory.
The song is already playing. Jonathan asks Will if he likes what he hears, and tells him he can keep the mixtape: Joy Division, Bowie, Television, The Smiths. Then Joyce Byers is heard raising her voice on the phone. Their father is not coming. He was supposed to take Will to a baseball game.
Jonathan turns the volume down. Will understands that the outing will not happen. The exchange is about baseball, then about taste. Jonathan tells him you should not like things because someone else tells you to, least of all their father. Jonathan then asks Will if he really likes The Clash. Will says yes, and Jonathan turns the volume back up.
In Indianapolis, at Lonnie Byers’s place, Will is not there.
Clear cassette keychain, handwritten label Should I Stay or Should I Go, rainbow bands on each side of the reels.
In the shopKeychain Should I Stay cassette12,90 €See the product
The stereo, the walkie and the radio
One evening, in episode 2 of season 1, Will calls. You hear “Mom?”, then the phone burns out. Joyce calls out for Jonathan, but he is not there: he is photographing a party. The song bursts from the stereo in the house. The lights and the music cut out, the wallpaper warps, and Joyce runs to her car. The power comes back, and she goes back into the house.
At the start of episode 4, “The Body” (Chapter Four: The Body), Joyce waits on her couch, facing the wall, an axe in her hand. In the Wheelers’ basement, Will’s singing voice comes through Mike’s walkie-talkie. Eleven’s nose bleeds. The next day, Mike tells his friends that Will was singing. Later, Joyce plays the track herself on a loop to get her son to speak.
At Hawkins Middle School, Eleven uses the AV club’s Heathkit radio. Here Will does not sing. He calls his mother, “Mom?” again. At home, Joyce tears the wallpaper off the living room wall and sees Will behind a membrane. He warns her that it is coming. That membrane is what remains of the passage the creature opened the night before, right after the RUN message on the Christmas lights. It closes, and Joyce strikes the wall with the axe.
The fort on the other side
The last scene of episode 7, “The Bathtub” (Chapter Seven: The Bathtub), does not close the season. It is the next-to-last chapter. Will is hidden in the flipped version of Castle Byers. He sings under his breath, for himself. The Demogorgon comes closer, then it tears the fort open.
At the hospital, in episode 8 of season 1, Jonathan brings a new mixtape. Its contents are not known. Nothing on screen says it contains The Clash. Jonathan only tells Will he put songs on it that Will should really like.
1984: the shed and Morse code
In episode 8 of season 2, Will is tied to a chair in the Byers shed. The room is camouflaged and lit. It is not the police chief’s cabin: the heat in that cabin comes in the next chapter. Will is taken over by the Mind Flayer. He taps out Morse code with his finger, on the chair.
Three memories bring him back. Joyce: the drawing from when he was eight, hung at Melvald's. Jonathan: Castle Byers, built in the rain on the day their father left. Mike: the first day of kindergarten, the swing. Will taps HERE. The group decodes it. Jonathan puts the song back on. He recalls the day he played it for him, while their parents were arguing in the next room. That is the memory as he tells it. In the flashback of episode 2, set in Jonathan’s room, the argument was over the phone, and the father was not in the house.
Other memories follow. The next message, tapped the same way, is CLOSE GATE. Among the songs of season 2, another Clash track plays in episode 4, “Will the Wise” (Chapter Four: Will the Wise), when Nancy joins Jonathan: This Is Radio Clash. That one is not played in the shed.
Jonathan in building blocks, shoulder-length hair and a black jacket, walkie-talkie in one hand.
In the shopBuildable mini figure Jonathan Byers14,90 €See the product
The Clash, from 1982 to the show’s choice
The track was written in 1981. Mick Jones is the main writer, and he sings it. Spanish backing vocals are sung by Joe Strummer and Joe Ely. Studio engineer Garcia’s mother translated the lyrics over the phone, into Ecuadorian Spanish. The title poses the choice between staying and leaving.
The album Combat Rock comes out on May 14, 1982, on CBS. In September 1982, CBS releases the track as a single, as a double A-side with Straight to Hell, and it reaches No. 17 in the United Kingdom. In the United States, Epic had already released it as a single: the July 1982 release ranks 45th on the Billboard Hot 100, the 1983 release ranks 50th. Reissued on February 18, 1991, after a Levi's ad, the track becomes the band’s only No. 1 in the United Kingdom. In November 2004, Rolling Stone, an American magazine, ranks it 228th.
Nora Felder, in an interview published on January 3, 2026, says the Duffer brothers chose the track. Variety, on August 18, 2017, under Rebecca Rubin’s byline, reports what followed. The Clash had to be convinced that the song would not be used as a gag in a monster story, and it had to be presented to them as a family bond. Felder went back to ask for the rights as its use grew. Matt Duffer says he knew nothing about it. The track was also chosen for the story’s pivotal moments, and elsewhere Felder describes it as one more lead role in the season, an invisible one.
The song compilation released on October 27, 2017, on Legacy Recordings features excerpts from the first two seasons. It was nominated at the 61st Grammy Awards. The opening and closing tracks feature Will singing The Clash. The song itself is track 3. Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein composed the theme. Their music is not on this record, which alternates between period songs and lines from the show.
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May 14, 1982 Combat Rock
The album comes out on CBS. The song is track 3.
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September 1982 The single
Double A-side with Straight to Hell. It reaches No. 17 in the United Kingdom.
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February 18, 1991 The reissue
Reissued after a Levi's ad. It is the band’s only No. 1 in the United Kingdom.
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November 2004 The ranking
Rolling Stone, an American magazine, ranks the track 228th.
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July 15, 2016 Season 1
Episodes 2, 4 and 7 use the track.
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August 18, 2017 Variety
Rebecca Rubin reports on Nora Felder’s efforts to get the rights.
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October 27, 2017 The compilation
Released on Legacy Recordings. Season 2 comes out the same day, and the track returns in episode 8, in the shed.
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January 3, 2026 The interview
Nora Felder says the Duffer brothers chose the track.
The night of November 12
What follows covers the opening of season 5. Episode 1, The Crawl, opens on November 12, 1983. Will sings in Castle Byers turned upside down. That night extends the last scene of episode 7, the one where the fort is torn open.
The Demogorgon tears the fort open. Will shoots at it, then he runs. He climbs a tree and falls. The creature carries him to the library of the Upside Down.
Vecna is waiting for him there, and infects him. What that night leaves Will with is covered in the article why Vecna does not kill Will.
In her January 2026 interview, Nora Felder sees this track as the bond forming between the two brothers, the one the elder passes to the younger. That is what the tape was for: a track handed from one to the other, then sung when the house is no longer the same.
Joyce in building blocks, beige jacket and plaid shirt, axe in hand.
In the shopBuildable mini figure Joyce Byers with an axe14,90 €See the product
Frequently asked questions
In which episodes is the track heard?
Season 1, episodes 2, 4 and 7. Season 2, episode 8, in the shed. Season 5, episode 1, The Crawl, in a flashback to November 12, 1983.
Who sings Should I Stay or Should I Go?
On the record, Mick Jones, the main writer. In the show, Will sings it: through Mike’s walkie-talkie in episode 4, then in the fort in episode 7. The 2017 compilation opens and closes on his voice.
Why does Will sing it in the fort?
The show does not say. In Castle Byers, on the other side, he sings it under his breath, for himself. It is the song he likes, the one Jonathan introduced him to. The monster comes closer, then it tears the fort open. It is the last scene of episode 7, not the finale.
Who chose the song?
The Duffer brothers, according to Nora Felder, in an interview published on January 3, 2026. She handled the rights requests. She describes the track as a bond between Jonathan and Will.
Which album is the track on?
Combat Rock, by The Clash, released on May 14, 1982, on CBS. The song is track 3. The British single dates from September 1982.
Is it on a record from the show?
Yes. The song compilation released on October 27, 2017, on Legacy Recordings places it as track 3. Will sings it on the opening and closing tracks. The record was nominated at the 61st Grammy Awards.
What is on the tape brought to the hospital?
It is not known. In episode 8, Jonathan brings a new mixtape. Nothing on screen reveals what is on it, and nothing says it contains The Clash.
What other Clash track plays in season 2?
This Is Radio Clash, in episode 4, “Will the Wise” (Chapter Four: Will the Wise), when Nancy joins Jonathan. It is not the shed scene, which is in episode 8.
