“Jumper” by Third Eye Blind

"Jumper" was the last single Elektra pulled from Third Eye Blind's self-titled 1997 debut, arriving in 1998, and it's a pop song with a hand held out. Stephan Jenkins wrote it, sharing a writing credit with guitarist Kevin Cadogan, sang it and produced it, with Eric Valentine co-producing and mixing across a string of San Francisco rooms, Toast Studios and Skywalker Ranch among them.

The spark was the suicide of a bullied gay teenager, with Jenkins folding in his own rough years growing up, and rather than wallow, the song pleads for a little more human kindness. Acoustic strum and Arion Salazar's piano keep it airy while Brad Hargreaves nudges it along. It reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100, and Jim Carrey's character later strummed it on an acoustic guitar to coax a would-be jumper back in Yes Man.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.