Mark Ronson: put him on the cusp of "household name" status
The producer/artist extraordinaire recently sat down with Rolling Stone to discuss 10 songs from his career. The cuts include work with a trio of UK pop stars.
Ronson's work on Ghostface Killah's "Ooh Wee" made him a semi-star in England, where he met Lily Allen at a London club called Yo-Yo. She gave him her demo, which he didn't listen to for a month, but he soon realized there was something special there.
"Holy s--t," Ronson said. "I have to work with this girl!"
"I wasn't really a big name, certainly not worth the label flying her out, so I got her a ticket on my air miles and put her up at the Holiday Inn in Chinatown at the height of the bird flu epidemic," he explained to Rolling Stone. "So she walks into this hotel, and everyone is wearing masks — like, Chinese businessmen wearing masks — probably totally freaked her out."
Ronson's Amy Winehouse story wasn't as funny, but he did reveal that he wasn't feeling "Valerie" when he heard The Zutons' version.
"To be honest, the first time I heard the song I was like, 'Uh ... OK,'" he said. "The song wasn't blowing me away, but she knew what a great song it was — like, inherently. Those chords spoke to her, and she knew how great it would be once she cut it."
He also worked with Adele on her debut album, 19, but she wouldn't let him help with anything besides the fittingly-titled "Cold Shoulder."
"I walked in and she played me her song and I thought it was great," he said. "I asked her, maybe being a little greedy, like, 'Do you have anything else you want to play?' You know, you're thinking maybe there's another one, and she was like, 'Nope, that's it. That's the only one I want you to do.' I was so blown away and impressed by how already what a strong vision she had of what she wanted for her record."
The Allen and Adele albums have, combined, sold more than 10 million copies since their release, while "Valerie" was perhaps Winehouse's only important recording after her classic Back to Black release in 2006.
Needless to say, Ronson has been somewhat of a King Midas over the past decade, and his latest Mars-featuring cut is the biggest hit yet.
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