Valerie --- a cover of that cover...

The Zutons' 'Valerie' was a fine song from the off, there is no doubt about that.
Then Amy Winehouse covered it and the rest, not all of it good in a sense, is history.

Now it has been covered again, by London-based Kalina Starhemberg (vocals) and Gael Cabado Barreno (guitar & beatbox). It is interesting how very far songs can travel from the place in which they started.

Then again there is so much good stuff to listen to at the moment and long may that last.

Added May 1, 2013:
Thanks to Barrie Moore for alerting me to this, another cover of 'Valerie'.


This one is by Sydney, NSW based singer Tiger K and was new to me until today.

Remixes, covers and coincidences...

The last year or two have thrown up a selection of cover versions and remixes, and some of them have been as successful as they seemed unlikely. The cover of The Zutons' 'Valerie', produced by Mark Ronson with Amy Winehouse on vocals, is probably the best known in the UK. Others turn up in less obvious places, b-sides and also in live sets. You can find such things such as The Manic Street Preachers covering Rihanna's 'Umbrella' (live) and also Lily Allen singing Keane's 'Everything's Changing' - it is the b-side to the 7" of 'Littlest Things'. The CD single had a new song 'U Killed It' as the (so called) flip-side!
'Littlest Things' fits well here too - it was largely written by Santi White, who has worked in major-label A&R, as a producer and also as a freelance songwriter. Now better known as Santogold she sings her new, often rather challenging, songs herself...

Santogold - Santogold (Warners, 2008)

The TV contest coincidence is this:
Earlier this year Duffy hit the big time in the UK with her début album Rockferry. She had however made a couple of fleeting appearances before. The first was as the runner up in Waw Ffactor 2003, the Welsh language version of Pop Idol. The next was a CD single, Aimée Duffy in 2004, which you can still buy new.

In 2005 she sung vocals on two tracks on the album See You In The Morning, the third album from Manchester based dance-pop act Mint Royale and this is where the coincidence factor plays. Another track from this album looks odds-on to be the UK #1 single this week. It is a cover/remix of 'Singing In The Rain' that was originally used in a VW Golf advert in 2005! That it has suddenly shot to prominence some three years later is due the fact that the winner of Britain's Got Talent, break-dancer George Sampson, used it as the backing for his final performance!
This will be a very good example of just how the weekly singles charts in even the countries of Western Europe can be incredibly different, which is not even a remotely unusual event.

The Kooks Spoil the Broth

Three bands, all of whom had big albums a couple of years ago, are now each pitching the first single from their next LP on radio in the UK and my view on the outcome has surprised me rather, although it is based on these three singles alone.
The most promoted seems to be the first single from The Kooks second album Konk, which is already available in the UK on both CD and vinyl. The above-mentioned single, 'Always Where I Need To Be', has been available since the end of March and I have to say I find it quite disappointing. I had high expectations and, while it is not something I would switch the radio off for, its still-in-the same-place ordinariness simply didn't meet them.

Next in my sights is the new single 'Mistress Mabel' from The Fratellis' forthcoming second album Here We Stand. Now this was something that I had resigned myself to finding a disappointment because the singles from their first album, Costello Music (2006), particularly 'Chelsea Dagger' and 'Whistle For The Choir' were almost too catchy to be true. It seems that they weren't and, although much less pop influenced, the new single demonstrates that the cheeky Glaswegians can follow their own footsteps into the future without sounding passé.

For my money however by far the the best of them is this:
'Always Right Behind You' is available to download from 19th May and on 7" vinyl/CD from 26th May (all are current scheduled UK release dates) and is the first single to be released from the third album, You Can Do Anything, by The Zutons, which will have a UK release on 2nd June on the label Deltasonic.

I Wish I Could Have Loved You More...

The album that I've listened to most in the last six weeks, and the one which I continue to do so without fail, is this one.

This is actually the cover of the single I Wish I Could Have Loved You More, which is also available on 7" vinyl, but the album has the same title and the cover illustration is in a very similar vein. This is the début album by Candie Payne and the UK indie label 'Deltasonic' has also had the great sense to release the album on vinyl with an illustrated inner sleeve.
What is more is that it is also frighteningly good, if rather different to that which might usually make the charts, and when she needs backing vocalists she calls on her brothers, including Sean who is the drummer with the Zutons, and also Abi Harding who is the saxophonist with the same. All are actually very good backing vocalists but neither this album or their contributions to it sound remotely like the Zutons own works.

The opening track, I Wish I Could Have Loved You More, may sound rather like a James Bond theme tune that is just slightly too realistic and melancholy to be real and so, and therefore also in many other ways, this is the track that goes far towards defining the whole theme from the start. If an album can be wistful and sometimes nostalgic, but also both positive and realistic at the same time, then listening to the first side will probably seem too good to be true. The second side might actually, however, turn out to be the better one and that really is an achievement.
I have found three singles, all taken from the album, that are available on 7" vinyl; these are 'I wish I could have loved you more', 'Take me' and 'All I need to hear', which are tracks 1,3 and 5 respectively on the first side of the 12" LP.
For the dates of live performances see here.