The Hardest Button to Button

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"The Hardest Button to Button"
Single by The White Stripes
from the album Elephant
Released	December 9, 2003
Format	CD, 7"
Recorded	April 2003
Genre	Alternative rock, garage rock revival
Length	3:32
Label	XL Recordings
Producer	Jack White
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 7" single by the American alternative rock band The White Stripes. It is the third single from their album Elephant. The cover of the single 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.

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

[edit] Music video

A screenshot of the music video for "The Hardest Button to Button". Meg White enters and exits a train, travelling by a seemingly endless supply of bass drums.

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 utilizes pixilation animation to create the effect of dozens of drum kits and guitar amplifiers multiplying to the rhythm of the song as Jack and Meg perform. For example, in one sequence, Meg is seen playing the bass drum at a subway station. At every beat she plays, she appears with a new bass drum while the last becomes vacant. This was achieved by first setting up a trail of bass drums. Then, Meg would be filmed performing a single beat on the last drum in the line, followed by the removal of that drum. Meg would then proceed to the next drum, play another beat, and so on. The final video is edited to include the drum beats with the sequence reversed, making it appear as if the drums are being added to the beat, appearing out of thin air. As many as 80 identical bass drums and Fender guitar amps were used in the video.

Much of the video was filmed around Riverside Drive and the Columbia University area near Grant's Tomb and around the 125th Street exit and surrounding neighborhood, - all part of the Upper West Side in Manhattan - New York City. Parts of the video were filmed at the 33rd Street PATH station.

There is a short cameo by Beck about two and a half minutes in as a man in a white suit presenting Jack with a "box with something in it".

[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" (video)

[edit] References

• Allmusic: "The Hardest Button to Button". Retrieved September 5th, 2005.
• The White Stripes (include lyrics). Retrieved September 5th, 2005.
• White Stripes.net Retrieved September 9th, 2005.
• White Stripes.net FAQ. Retrieved September 17th, 2005.
• "The White Stripes on Elephant". Retrieved April 19th, 2006. Archived on web.archive.org, archive retrieved 23 October 2006.