Get Behind Me Satan is the fifth studio album by American alternative rock band The White Stripes, released on June 7, 2005, on V2 Records. Though still basic in production style, the album marked a distinct change from its guitar-heavy 2003 predecessor, Elephant. With its reliance on piano-driven melodies and experimentation with marimba on "The Nurse" and "Forever For Her (Is Over For Me)", Get Behind Me Satan plays down the punk, garage rock and blues influences that dominated earlier White Stripes albums. Frontman Jack White plays with different technique than in the past, trading in his electric guitar for piano, mandolin, and acoustic guitar on all but a handful of tracks, as his usual riff-conscious lead guitar style is overtaken by a predominantly rhythmic approach. Rolling Stone ranked it the third best album of the year and it received the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album in 2006. As of February 2007, Get Behind Me Satan had sold 850,000 units in the United States.
Jack White recorded the album at his own Third Man Studios in Detroit, Michigan, and mixed it at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. This represented a change from their previous album because The White Stripes did not use a professional studio for production work.
Jack White has explained that the title, Get Behind Me Satan, refers to a well-known line from the story of the Temptation of Jesus which is later repeated against the disciple Simon Peter, in Matthew 16:23 of the New Testament. In the King James Version, the quotation is slightly different: "Get thee behind me, Satan". Jack White has also stated in an interview on the radio show Fresh Air that "truth is the number one theme throughout the album Get Behind Me Satan." Relating that point to the album's multiple reference to movie actress Rita Hayworth, White said she became an "all-encompassing metaphor" for the album since she changed her last name from something that revealed her Latina heritage, and the way celebrity was cast upon her.
Get Behind Me Satan was, for ten years, the only album by The White Stripes to not be commercially released in a vinyl format. The reason behind it was because The White Stripes had intended to re-record Get Behind Me Satan entirely live in a New Zealand studio and wanted that to be the official vinyl version. However, the studio that they were planning to record it in no longer had the recording equipment to make it possible. As a result, at the time there was never a commercially released vinyl of the album. Yet, there are only a few copies of the album on vinyl LP that were given exclusively to music journalists for review, which have since become coveted collector's items. They were released by both XL Recordings and V2 Records and each label had only 300, making the total 600 and highly rare. However, for Record Store Day 2015, Jack White's Third Man Records are releasing a limited vinyl edition with a lenticular gatefold sleeve, pressed on red and white vinyl. A commercially released version with standard artwork pressed on standard black vinyl will be released later in the year.
The album cover was used in the Gilmore Girls episode "I Get a Sidekick Out of You", with Lane and Zach in Meg and Jack's positions, respectively. It was also used for the 2008 Ozy and Millie calendar as both the front cover and for the month of January with the characters Ozy and Mille replacing Jack and Meg.
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