Conquest

This Flamenco/rock crossover song tells the story of a serial womanizer who finally meets his match.

Originally popularized by Patti Page, who had a #18 hit with it in 1952, "Conquest" was a song Jack White wanted to sing for 10 years before he got around to recording. In an interview with USA Today, which featured White and Page having a telephone conversation, the White Stripes mainman told the '50s songstress how he often listened to a collection of her hits while working in an upholstery shop he owned in the Detroit area. He revealed: "The last song on it was 'Conquest.' Whenever the first horns came on, I knew that, whatever I was working on, I was going to have to flip the record pretty soon." He added that he finally recorded it, "Because all the themes on the new Stripes record sort of revolved around role reversals, the underdog becoming the one in control. The lyrical message in 'Conquest' is exactly what you root for in life with people you know. You hope they'll have the sense to switch a situation around if they're in peril. I love how bold the song is, and simple at the same time. It's kind of irresistible."

Page's recording featured the innovative multiple-voice technique with which she recorded most of her early hits, and White recorded the trumpet parts in much the same way Page recorded her vocals. He located Regulo Aldama, a player in a Mariachi band at a Mexican restaurant near the Nashville studio where the Stripes were recording and White recorded him again and again. He told USA Today: "We just turned this one guy into a whole trumpet section."