“Valerie” (11) is a song by English indie rock band the Zutons from their second studio album, Tired of Hanging Around (2006). In an interview with The Scotsman in May 2008, lead singer Dave McCabe described the writing process of the song: “I could tell you I was inspired by gazing out across the Mersey or walking past Macca’s old house, but the truth is I got the idea in a cab on the way to my mum’s. The whole song was written before I got there, so 20 minutes, max.” The song’s title and theme refer to an American friend of McCabe’s who was in trouble for driving under the influence. The band’s drummer, Sean Payne, called it a “musical postcard to her, saying he is having a hard time and can she come over and see him.” In an interview with Vice Magazine in June 2019, the subject of the song was revealed to be celebrity makeup artist Valerie Star. She explained that she met McCabe and how she got arrested for driving on a suspended licence.
After “Valerie” became a success in the summer of 2006, it found an unlikely fan in Amy Winehouse, who was invited to contribute to a new project with Mark Ronson. He claimed Winehouse did not listen to anything written after 1967 and that she was struggling to come up with something that would fit the sessions for Ronson’s upcoming album Version. After Ronson explained that the album would consist of soul covers of guitar records, Winehouse told him that she might try “Valerie”, but Ronson strained to hear her voice singing that song in his head. “I wasn’t sure how it would work, but she went into the studio and tried it. I loved it,” he said. The single peaked at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart, where it spent 19 consecutive weeks inside the top 20. With sales of 329,490, it became the UK’s ninth biggest-selling single of 2007. The single spent 36 consecutive weeks on the UK Singles Chart between September 2007 and May 2008. It re-entered the chart in late June 2008 to take its total to 39 weeks. e single’s music video, directed by Robert Hales, was filmed in London in August 2007. It shows Ronson and a group of jazz musicians inviting a woman from the audience onto their stage to “sing” the song (after they notice that Winehouse is not present), followed by (presumably) the woman’s friends, in the style of group karaoke—although the women essentially mime to Winehouse’s voice. The women doing the lip sync performance have Amy’s famous beehive hairstyle, possibly to come across as impersonators.
Glee covered Winehouse’s version of the song in the episode “Special Education”, as one of the two songs for the season 2 Sectionals, with Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) singing the lead and Brittany Pierce (Heather Morris) and Mike Chang (Harry Shum Jr.) performing a choreographed dance duet. During the 100th episode of the series they redo the song as a duet with Santana and Brittany singing, backed up by the dancing of Mike and new New Directions member Jake Puckerman (Jacob Artist).
American bluegrass band the Brothers Comatose covered the song for their 2016 album City Painted Gold. The video shows them performing “Valerie” live at the 2015 Pickathon Pumphouse Sessions in Portland, Oregon.
Dionne Bromfield, (Winehouse’s goddaughter), Caro Emerald, Ivy Quainoo, Ina Müller & Aura Dione performed “Valerie” as a special tribute to Amy Winehouse live on Echo 2012 in March 2012 in Berlin, Germany for the 2012 Echo Awards.
A slowed down somewhat jazzier version of the song is performed by ‘tiktok’ star Stacey Ryan from Montreal.
