The song was included on both the original issue and subsequent reissue of the band's debut album, The Undertones.

Two versions of the single were issued: A conventional black vinyl version of the single housed in a yellow paper sleeve sporting a photograph of the band's lead singer, Feargal Sharkey, as a youngster, holding a trophy he had won at a Fèis Doíre Colmcílle festival,[2] and a green vinyl version—displaying the same image—housed in a clear plastic sleeve with a paper inlay detailing dates and venues of then-forthcoming gigs across the United Kingdom.

[3] The decision to simultaneously release "Jimmy Jimmy" on both coloured and traditional black vinyl was made by Sire Records to give the single a competitive edge in the charts following the relative commercial failure of the band's previous single, "Get over You".

[4] Music journalist Cliff White reviewed the single in the May 1979 edition of Smash Hits, stating: "Hmm.

Either my record player is on the brink or the Undertones have made a disappointingly weak slab of nothing special, stitched together from bits of other people's old rock hits.