White Stripes Enjoy Their Hottest Sales Week Ever

The White Stripes have scored a career-best debut with their sixth album, Icky Thump. Last week, 223,056 people bought copies of the blues-rock duo's latest opus, securing them the number two spot on the Billboard charts behind Bon Jovi (whose Lost Highway moved 291,532 copies). This marks both the White Stripes' highest chart debut ever and their hottest week of sales: 2005's Get Behind Me Satan entered the charts at number three, selling 189,000 copies in its first week. Somewhere, Jack and Meg are surely clinking Red Stripes (to a rigid beat) in celebration.

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Song Stories

“Let My Love Open the Door”

Pete Townshend | 1980

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."

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