IFLTS: 'Valerie,' Amy Winehouse

Posted on Sep 7th 2007 2:00PM by Melissa Olund
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'Valerie,' Amy Winehouse
From Mark Ronson's 2007 album, 'Version'

I don't know anyone named "Valerie," and I've never even bothered to listen to the Zutons' original (sorry!). But when I first heard Amy Winehouse belt this cover out at Spinner's Interface, I couldn't wait for her to wrap her velvet ~~crack~~ pipes around it in a proper studio recording. And though I admit I prefer her raw, acoustic guitar-accompanied take (Watch it here), direct from the green vinyl couch in our tiny studio, accomplished DJ-turned-producer Mark Ronson did right by the Queen Beehive with this bouncy, horns-fueled mix that sounds as at home on alternative radio as it would on a crackly AM oldies station.

'Valerie' has the same sass as the rest of the Winehouse canon, almost as if the Zutons, bless 'em, wrote the track specifically for her. "'Cause since I've come on home, well, my body's been a mess," the in-and-out of 'Rehab' starlet sings. "Won't you come on over, stop makin' a fool out of me," is so much more appropriate post-hubby Blake Fielder-Civil and that bizarre, bloody hotel brawl. But had Winehouse written it, the chorus might be "Why don't you come on over Bla-a-ake," and, quite frankly, nobody needs to hear that. Another Winehouse gem that I throw on repeat and annoy the neighbors with, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

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