Valerie - Remastered

Valerie is a mysterious woman, cool like jazz on a summer's day. Winwood wrote the music and Will Jennings wrote the lyric. In a Songfacts interview with Jennings, he explained: "Valerie is a real person, whose identity I will not reveal. She was almost at the top of the world in her profession and let it slip away from her. She was a dear friend and this was my tribute to her."

Steve Winwood's solo career was picking up steam at this point. In the '60s, he made a name for himself in the Spencer Davis Group when he was still a teenager. His next stop was Traffic, then Blind Faith, then Traffic again. He spent about three years working on his first, self-titled solo album, which was released in 1977 and got little attention. Arc of a Diver arrived in 1980 with the modest hit "While You See a Chance," also written by Will Jennings. "Valerie" was the hit from his next album, Talking Back to the Night. His next one, Back in the High Life, made him a fixture on Pop and Adult Contemporary radio.

When this song was first released in 1982, it went to #51 in the UK and #70 in the US. In 1987, it was remixed by Tom Lord Alge with revised drum and vocal tracks for the 1987 Steve Winwood compilation album Chronicles, and again released as a single. This time, it went to #19 in the UK and #9 in the US. In 2004, the song was remixed once again, this time by the Swedish DJ Eric Prydz as "Call On Me." This version was a monster hit across Europe, going to #1 in the UK, Germany, and several other countries.