Top Five Songs By The White Stripes
As they have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, here is a rundown of the top five songs from the iconic rock duo.
Top 5 Songs By The White Stripes
As they have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, here is a rundown of the top five songs from the iconic rock duo.
5. We’re Going to Be Friends (2001)
A gentle departure from their usual fiery sound, We’re Going to Be Friends is a tender acoustic song about childhood innocence and the fleeting simplicity of youth. With just Jack’s soft vocals and a fingerpicked guitar, the song showcased the duo’s versatility. Featured in the opening credits of Napoleon Dynamite, it remains one of their most beloved and frequently covered songs — proof that The White Stripes could create beauty as effortlessly as they conjured chaos.
4. Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (2001)
Opening White Blood Cells with haunting feedback and a bluesy snarl, Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground captures Jack White’s lyrical vulnerability beneath the noise. The track explores heartbreak and loneliness against a backdrop of blistering guitar distortion — a mix of emotional grit and poetic sadness that became a White Stripes hallmark. The accompanying video, directed by Michel Gondry, mirrors that feeling of isolation, showing White returning to an empty home filled with ghostly memories.
3. Icky Thump (2007)
The title track from their final studio album saw The White Stripes at their most experimental. Blending blues-rock grit with politically charged lyrics, Icky Thump critiques American immigration hypocrisy and class privilege. Jack White’s distorted, swirling guitar riffs and bursts of keyboard evoke Led Zeppelin and early metal influences, while Meg’s thunderous drumming anchors the chaos. It topped the Billboard Modern Rock chart and earned the band another Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.
2. Fell in Love with a Girl (2001)
From the breakthrough album White Blood Cells, this frenetic 1 minute 50 second burst of punk energy announced the band’s arrival on the mainstream scene. Jack White’s ragged vocals and Meg’s machine-gun drumming created an exhilarating sense of chaos that helped define the early 2000s garage rock revival. The stop-motion LEGO music video directed by Michel Gondry became an MTV sensation and won three MTV Video Music Awards. Despite its brevity, it’s one of the purest distillations of the duo’s raw chemistry.
1. Seven Nation Army (2003)
Arguably the defining anthem of the 2000s, Seven Nation Army cemented The White Stripes’ legacy as minimalist rock innovators. Built on Jack White’s instantly recognizable riff — actually a semi-acoustic guitar run through a pitch shifter to sound like a bass — the song became a global stadium chant. Its hypnotic rhythm, explosive chorus, and Meg White’s primal drumming turned it into a modern rock classic. It won the Grammy for Best Rock Song and remains so universal that football fans worldwide still chant its melody two decades later.
