“Valerie” by Amy Winehouse & Mark Ronson

Despite “Valerie” being recited by Amy Winehouse (1983-2011), it is not being relayed from her personal perspective. Rather it is the cover of a song whose primary writer is another musician by the name of Dave McCabe. And Dave McCabe once dated a lady named Valerie Star, whom the lyrics of this tune are actually about.

And they relay two basic sentiments. One it that “Valerie” is someone whom the narrator cares about, particularly it would seem from a romantic viewpoint. And second is that the signer misses her significantly. So the implication would be that they have broken up, thus making “Valerie” a song centered on a lost love. And on a different note it would seem as if Valerie regularly had issues with creditors and even the law itself, as such are amongst the experiences which the singer remembers the most about her.

But at the end of the day, as aforementioned, the primary focus of this track is centered on just how much the singer misses “Valerie”. So on top of wondering what she’s up to he is apparently reminiscing on the romantic moments they shared together as well as other aspects of her personality.

Facts about “Valerie”

This track was released by Columbia Records and Island Records on 15 October 2007. It served as the third single from Mark Ronson’s sophomore album, which is entitled “Version”. And a live version was also featured on the deluxe edition of Amy Winehouse’s album “Back to Black”.

“Valerie” was written by the following songwriters:

• David McCabe
• Boyan Chowdhury
• Abi Harding
• Sean Payne
• Russell Pritchard

The above are the members of a band called The Zutons, who were actually the first ones to release “Valerie” in 2006.  So Amy Winehouse’s version is actually a cover. And the track was produced by Mark Ronson.

And the cover actually did much better than The Zutons’ original. For instance, the official collaboration with Mark Ronson topped the UK R&B Chart and a couple of music charts in the Netherlands. Overall it made it into the charts of about 15 nations and by the end of the day had been certified Platinum in the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile the live version also did well for itself, going Gold in the UK and charting in almost 10 countries altogether.

The music video to this track had Robert Hales as its director.