DOWNLOAD THE SONGSHEET
You can play in the same key as the video recordings in GCEA tuning if you put your capo on the 3rd fret! I've based the songsheet I created on the Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse 2007 cover, but I've shortened up the ending a bit for BUG!
The song's title and theme refer to a then-unnamed American friend of Dave McCabe's who was in trouble for driving under the influence. The band's drummer, Sean Payne, called it a "musical postcard to her, saying he is having a hard time and can she come over and see him". In an interview with Vice magazine in June 2019, the subject of the song was revealed to be celebrity makeup artist Valerie Star. She explained that she met McCabe and how she got arrested for driving on a suspended license.
English musicians Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse covered "Valerie" for Ronson's second studio album, Version (2007).