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

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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