Valerie is a song by the English indie rock band, the Zutons from their second studio album, Tired of Hanging Around (2006). The song was later covered by Mark Ronson, with lead vocals provided by Amy Winehouse.
Valerie went on to reach number two on the UK Singles Chart in 2007. The Zutons are an English indie rock band, formed in 2001 in Liverpool. The band were composed of singer, songwriter and guitarist Dave McCabe, drummer Sean Payne and saxophonist Abi Harding. Past members of the band are Russell Pritchard (bass), Paul Molloy (guitar) and Boyan Chowdhury (lead guitar). Their debut album, Who Killed...... The Zutons? achieved chart success with Why Won't You Give Me Your Love? from this album. The band quietly disbanded in 2009, several months after they released the third studio album. 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 was used by ITV during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The music video was directed by Scott Lyon. It is set in a prison and shows the Zutons trying to escape. After the original Zutons’s version of 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. Ronson's production of the cover is based around the beat from the Jam's 1982 song Town Called Malice. Winehouse also recorded a jazzier, acoustic version for Radio 1's Live Lounge, which was issued at the same time as the Ronson collaboration and had success in its own right.
