The song made world famous by Amy Winehouse

Audio

listen to a compilation of 3 versions

Or did the song make Amy a celebrity? The original made by British band The Zutons. They released the song as a single in june 2006. It became a top ten hit in the UK but it did not do well outside of that island.

In that same year the world championship football was in Germany and British broadcast company ITV used among others a reggae-cover version of “Valerie” as tune. That version is hard to trace, made by a mysterious St. Kitts Nevis and adressed to the year 1966…

Amy recorded a lounge version as bonus track for her ‘Back To Black’ album (released oktober 2006) and also made a version for BBC’s ‘Jo Whiley Live Lounge Show’ in 2007.

In oktober 2007 producer Mark Ronson decided to release an album with soulcovers of guitarsongs  and together with Amy Winehouse he recorded “Valerie” again. This became the hit version with uptempo drums that most people know.

More trivia: the beat in Ronson’s production is an interpolation of The Jams’ “A Town Called Malice”.

Digital only

At first the song was only released as a digital download. When the number 1 position in the hit charts was reached the track was released on a cd-single. Later it was also made available on 10 inch. The shown 7 inch is a bootleg, an illegal version.

Valerie built my house

The Zutons are thankful for the fact that, as the bandmembers stated, she built a house for everyone with her versions.