Song #40: "Valerie"--Steve Winwood (1982)

Today, my favorite song from a rock stalwart whose career started very, very young, who also enjoyed some solo success, specifically in the 1980's

After songs like "While You See A Chance" and "Arc Of A Diver" in 1981, Winwood released "Talking Back To The Night", which did not see as much chart success as his work the year before. But from it came the original version of today's song, which got fine airplay on AOR radio stations, where I discovered, and fell in love with the tune.

Then, much to my surprise about five years later, a remixed version of the song was placed on his "Chronicles" release, and cracked the Top 20 (as did the single "Talking Back To The Night").

Maybe mainstream America wasn't ready in 1982, Winwood ahead of his time. But I ate up today's song during my first semester at Patrick Henry, and prefer the original version to the one that became a hit five years later.

A song that tells the simple story of a man hoping to convince a lost love to come back to him, as he's the same boy he used to be.