Third Man Records and Columbia Records will release The White Stripes Greatest Hits on December 4. The first-ever official anthology of recordings from the iconic rock duo, Jack and Meg White, is an essential career-spanning collection highlighting 26 previously released songs – from late Nineties flashes of brilliance through early 2000s underground anthems, masterful MTV Moon Man moments, Grammy-grabbing greatness, and worldwide stadium chants…the songs here are as wide-ranging as you can imagine. The album is available for pre-order on CD, 2xLP 150-gram black vinyl, and digitally. A deluxe limited edition and ONLY colored vinyl variant of The White Stripes Greatest Hits is also available as part of Third Man Records’ Vault Package #46. Not leaving out a crucial component to the story of The White Stripes and Third Man Records, information about added value items for release week album purchases at independent record stores will be announced at a later date. Twentysome years ago, a brother and sister climbed into the third floor attic of their Southwest Detroit family homestead and bashed out a primitive cover of David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream,” sparking something in both of them and leading them to take their simple guitar-drums-voice approach to a local open mic night on Bastille Day. In what feels like a whirlwind, they record and release two 7-inch singles for a local indie label. A not-so-local indie offers to put out a full-length album. They start touring. Another album. More touring. Another album. Folks REALLY start to pay attention. Crazy touring, more albums, accolades, wildest dream after wildest dream coming true. “World-renowned” becomes an appropriate descriptor, as does “long-building overnight sensation.” The same hard work and dedication that The White Stripes exhibited from the onset of their existence is what has been poured into The White Stripes Greatest Hits. In an era of streaming where the idea of a “Greatest Hits” album may seem irrelevant – that an act’s most streamed songs are considered their de facto “hits” – we wholeheartedly believe that great bands deserve “Greatest Hits” and that a large part of Third Man Records’ and The White Stripes’ successes have been built on zigging when the rest of the music business is zagging. Thus, for a great band with great fans, a greatest hits compilation for The White Stripes is not only appropriate, but absolutely necessary. In true White Stripes fashion, the band has revealed only one of the twenty-six songs on the track list today, “Ball and Biscuit,” keeping the rest a mystery to be unveiled at a later date. Ensuring that this special celebration is started in full face-melting force, the band have dug into the archives to share a never-before-seen live performance video of “Ball and Biscuit” from their October 22nd, 2003 Shibuya-AX show in Tokyo, Japan.