Blue Orchid

Basic tracking was done on 10 March 2005, near the end of the album sessions, with vocal overdubs added later. Jack has said in several interviews that Blue Orchid saved the album, and that writing it made him want to play festivals. An Electro-Harmonix polyphonic octave generator pedal produced the heavier guitar sound, and he liked the octaves more than the effects. John Hampton and Jack mixed it at Ardent Studios in late March, and Howie Weinberg mastered it on 28 March. It went to US rock radio on 18 April 2005, six weeks after it was written.

The single topped the Canadian chart in June 2005, reached 9 on the UK Singles Chart and 43 on the Billboard Hot 100, and went to 7 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. Pitchfork's Matthew Murphy said it maintains the Stripes' impressive streak of stellar singles, with a wild falsetto and a processed, strangely electronic-sounding guitar. Floria Sigismondi directed the video, which features Karen Elson and ends as a horse is about to stomp on her. Yahoo! ranked it 21 on its 2005 list of the top 25 spookiest videos. It appears in the trailer for the documentary It Might Get Loud, and High Contrast remixed it for the album Fabric Live 25.

Live

On the first episode of the UK series From the Basement the band played Blue Orchid. Of the 498 logged setlists that list songs, 131 include it. The earliest is from 11 May 2005 and the latest from 31 July 2007.