Danger! High Voltage - Re-Recorded

"Danger! High Voltage" is the best-known song by the Electric Six, a Detroit rock band that can be very daft. They assume stage names: The lead singer is "Dick Valentine" and the guitarist on the track goes by "The Rock And Roll Indian." The song finds Dick full of burning desire, feeling a high voltage shock when he touches the woman who turns him on. In a Songfacts interview with Valentine, he said: "My motivation was just to have a few beers and let loose because I had a s--tty day job and I wanted something fun to do on the weekends."

That's Jack White of The White Stripes on backing vocals, repeating back the lines "Don't you wanna know how we keep starting fires?" and "It's my desire." White did it as a favor and wasn't paid - he did more than his part to help out other Detroit bands. When he did his vocals in 2000, The White Stripes had released two albums and were hailed in the UK as the next big thing, but they still weren't well known in America outside of Michigan. By the time the video for "Danger!" was released in 2003, The White Stripes had released their third album, White Blood Cells, and were a much bigger deal.

Jack White is credited on the track under the name John S. O'Leary, the name he used when booking hotels. The band claimed their guest singer only sounded like White, and was really an auto mechanic that won a competition to earn the spot. They obscured his identity for two reasons: 1) To protect White from any controversy the Electric Six generated. 2) So it wouldn't look like the Electric Six were riding his coattails.