The White Stripes “Greatest Hits” 2020. Third Man Records, Vault Pkg. #46. Today, December 10th, is Meg White’s birthday (b. 1974) so I’m diving deep into a 3-LP colored vinyl set (white, red and the special red/white/black “detonation” variant exclusive to the Vault release pictured here) of White Stripes songs. The subtitle of this release is “(Aside From That and Besides This)” which refers to disk three: a collection of b-sides/alternate takes. In true Vault fashion, the set also includes three Rob Jones silkscreen prints and a pack of White Stripes-themed magnetic poetry squares.

Discs 1 and 2 are exactly what you’d expect from a White Stripes retrospective: a collection of 26 songs like “Fell In Love With a Girl,” “Dead Leaves on a Dirty Ground,” “We’re Going to Be Friends,” “Jolene” (one of many covers songs, this one originally by Dolly Parton is my absolute favorite), “Ball and Biscuit,” “My Doorbell” and their biggest hit “Seven Nation Army.” Disc 3 is of most interest to me, with some real gems like the hair metal meets a punk Spanish Conquistador-styled rendition of “Lafayette Blues,” the glam-rocker “Walking With a Ghost,” their live cover of Loretta Lynn’s “Rated X” and “Good to Me” (a breakneck blues stomper). But there’s a couple of stinkers on it like “Who’s a Big Baby?” (it’s waayyy out there, like Jack White found a couple of hidden settings on his grandma’s parlor organ and just went to town) and the most offensive:  “Trendy American Remix” of “You’re Pretty Good Looking” which I hope to god was a joke as it’s entirely in autotune and just awful.