The Hardest Button to Button

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"The Hardest Button to Button"
"The Hardest Button to Button" cover
Single by The White Stripes
from the album Elephant
Released December 9, 2003
Format CD, 7"
Recorded April 2003
Genre Punk blues
Length 11 min 53 s
Label XL Recordings
Producer(s) Jack White
Chart positions
  • #23 (UK)
The White Stripes singles chronology
"I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself"
(2003)		 "The Hardest Button to Button"
(2003)		 "There's No Home for You Here"
(2004)

"The Hardest Button to Button" is a single by The White Stripes. It is the third single from their album Elephant.

Jack White says that the song is about a child trying to find his place in a dysfunctional family when a new baby comes.

It was sampled by The Kleptones on their album 24 Hours.

Contents

[edit] Music video

The music video for "The Hardest Button to Button" is the third White Stripes video directed by Michel Gondry, after "Fell in Love with a Girl" and "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground". (Two years later, he would direct the music video for "The Denial Twist".) The video features Jack and Meg performing the song as drum sets and amplifiers multiply, taking them around a city. The video was made using pixilation animation: for example, Meg would perform one drum beat, the camera would stop, the drum kit would be removed from the line and Meg would get on to the next kit, and make another drum beat, and so on. In the video, this is played in reverse so that it looks like they are being added. There is a short cameo by Beck about two and a half minutes in. Parts of the video were filmed on the PATH Train that goes from New York City to Northern New Jersey.

[edit] Track listing

[edit] 7"

  1. "The Hardest Button to Button"
  2. "St. Ides of March"

[edit] CD

  1. "The Hardest Button to Button"
  2. "St. Ides of March"
  3. "The Hardest Button to Button" (music video)

[edit] Trivia

  • The song was featured on "Jazzy and the Pussycats", in The Simpsons 18th season. Bart plays the song's drumbeat with multiplying drums through the town (exactly as in the video) and eventually runs into (literally) Meg and her drumkit. The Stripes briefly give chase (with their own multiplying instruments) until a break in the beat ends up with them hovering over an opening in a draw bridge, through which both Meg and Jack fall after a slight pause (in accordance with the established Laws of Cartoon Physics).
  • The cover of the single, shown above, is an allusion to the graphics of Saul Bass, seen in the movie posters and title sequences of films such as Anatomy of a Murder and The Man with the Golden Arm.
  • When The White Stripes were unable to play the Reading Festival 2003, due to Jack White's broken finger. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club were moved up to their slot and covered The Hardest Button to Button

[edit] References

The White Stripes
Jack White | Meg White
Discography
Albums and extended plays: The White Stripes | De Stijl | White Blood Cells | Elephant | Get Behind Me Satan | Walking with a Ghost | Icky Thump
Singles: "Let's Shake Hands" | "Lafayette Blues" | "The Big Three Killed My Baby" | "Hand Springs" | "Hello Operator" | "Lord, Send Me an Angel" | "Party of Special Things to Do" | "Hotel Yorba" | "Fell in Love with a Girl" | "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" | "We're Going to Be Friends" | "Red Death at 6:14" | "Candy Cane Children" | "Seven Nation Army" | "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" | "The Hardest Button to Button" | "There's No Home for You Here" | "Jolene (Live Under Blackpool Lights)" | "Blue Orchid" | "My Doorbell" | "The Denial Twist"
DVDs: Candy Coloured Blues (unofficial) | Under Blackpool Lights
Other projects: Aluminium | The Go
Related articles
Third Man Records | Ian Montone | Triple Inchophone | The Raconteurs
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