Graham Gouldman in The Daily Mail, May 27, 2007: We were crossing New Yorks Wall Street in a cab one day and someone said, Do the Wall Street Shuffle. That song just built from there.

In a BBC Radio Wales interview, Eric Stewart added: We were crossing Wall Street in New York in a stretch limousine, celebrating the fact that wed got in the charts with Rubber Bullets, and wed gone across the big financial district of America there, and just as we were going across the street, Lol said Wall Street! The Wall Street Shuffle! And I said Do the Wall Street Shuffle, the melody, I had the melody in my head. But it was Lol, Lols words. Wall Street Shuffle. And by that time Id started writing more so I was getting a little bit more competent in what I was doing in, in the writing partnerships. And those things stay with you, as I was saying earlier on, if someone says a nice line to you or you hear something on radio, theres a part of your brain suddenly locks it in if its good, and youll never forget it. Until you get into the studio and start to write. And we got to the studio to, to start writing our second album, Sheet Music, and I said to Lol, Remember that idea, Lol, Wall Street Shuffle? He said Yeah, yeah, its a great idea, great title, but I dont think I really, I dont feel right like writing. I dont think I have anything to put in that in terms of words. So I said, Well, anybody else want to write? Is anybody gonna go for this? and Graham says Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, lets try and write it.
This was inspired by the downfall of the pound that was happening at the time. Eric Stewart explained to NME in 1976: It was a very heavy run and the mark and the yen were getting stronger, and all these words you could use in other ways. So it was just a comment really on the financial time.
The song was a breakthrough for Eric Stewart as a songwriter, even though hed previously penned songs as a member of the 60s band, The Mindbenders. Graham Gouldman was an already established songsmith having written hits for the likes of The Hoillies (Bus Stop) and the Yardbirds (For Your Love). Also, up to that point the other two band members Lol Crème and Kevin Godley had done much of the writing for 10cc. However, Stewart came up with a lot of the ideas for this song and its success gave him a lot of confidence as a writer.