Once Upon a Time in the Top Spot: The White Stripes, Elephant

12 years ago today, an album by the White Stripes stampeded up the UK Albums chart in its first week of release and trounced everything in its wake until reaching the #1 position.

Hitting #1 is an impressive accomplishment no matter how you look at it, but in the case of The White Stripes, it was hard-earned, working their way up the ranks and building a fanbase gradually. Okay, so maybe not all that gradually: their previous album, White Blood Cells, had only made it as far as #55 on the UK Albums chart, so it was still a pretty significant jump in success from one album to the next. We'll go ahead and attribute that to the album's single, “Seven Nation Army,” which was - and remains - an absolutely kick-ass track, one that won over a heck of a lot of naysayers in just a little under four minutes. As Elephant's lead-off track, if that's not enough to inspire you to give the album a chance, nothing's going to, but thankfully it did indeed inspire plenty of people to give it a shot, hence its platinum sales figures.

Not only was Elephant critically acclaimed upon its initial release, winning the Grammy for Best Alternative Album, but just in case you're wondering, it's still great. But don't just take our word for it: go listen to it again and confirm it for yourself!