Blue Orchid (2:55)

“Blue Orchid” is the first track by the American alternative rock band The White Stripes from their album Get Behind Me Satan, and the first single to be released from the album.

The recorded sound is produced by two guitars playing almost in unison, and each digitally combined with their own signal an octave lower. Live, the sound is produced by a bass-rich guitar tone, used in combination with a whammy pedal to create the heavily metallic sounding breaks of the song (“How dare you, how old are you now anyway” and “get behind me, get behind me now anyway”.)

The single comes in three editions, each with different additional tracks. All three covers feature two people dressed up as The White Stripes, but are noticeably different people. The first CD and the 7” feature the couple in the same order as Get Behind Me Satan, with ‘Jack’ on the right. The second CD version features ‘Jack’ on the left.

In an NPR interview, Jack White referred to “Blue Orchid” as the song that saved the album. He has denied that the song relates to the ending of his relationship with Renée Zellweger.

The video for “Blue Orchid” was on Yahoo!’s Top Twenty Scariest Music Videos of all Time, charting at number 13. It features Karen Elson, a model who would marry Jack White soon after the shoot. The video, which was directed by Floria Sigismondi, ends with a horse, its hooves raised in the air, about to stomp on Elson, but just before the hooves land on her, the video quickly goes black, ending.