DJ, songwriter, and record producer!
Mark’s stepdad is the guitarist from the band Foreigner so, clearly, he grew up in a musical home.
During his childhood, he would try out all instruments and become proficient enough with drums, piano, and guitar to understand how music was put together.
This Bird’s Eye view must have attracted him to become a DJ and producer as he by 2003 released his first album Here Comes The Fuzz, a hip-hop album.
Unfortunately, it didn’t sell, but he had gotten the taste for producing and would soon start working with Lily Allen (Alright, Still 2006), Christina Aguilera (Back To Basics 2006), and most notably, Amy Winehouse (Back To Black 2006).
Back To Black is, in my opinion, the best album released by a U.K. Artist on this side of the millennium, and Mark’s role was without a doubt imperative.
The following year, Mark released a song that would come to define the U.K. covers band world when he, again with Amy, released a cover version of Zuton’s Valerie.
In June 2009, he released Daniel Merriweather’s Love & War, which had the single Red on it.
In my opinion, Mark went too far on this project as he threw the kitchen sink at it and overproduced the album. Slow the tempo down and scale it back and Red is an amazing song that could have been huge.
I was so convinced this was the case I had to record Red like this for Spytunes in 2011, at a slower tempo.
In 2014, Mark released Uptown Funk in collaboration with Bruno Mars, a song that would become his greatest success as it made the list of best-selling digital singles of all time with 20 million copies sold.
2018 saw yet another remake of the film A Star Is Born, now Lady Gaga would play the role previously held by Barbara Streisand and Judy Garland. Mark wrote the immense Shallow with Gaga.
If you want to hear Mark Ronson talk about music and interview artists, check out the podcast Fader, it’s great.
Mark Ronson | Related pages
Uptown Funk
| Dm7 | G7 G9 |
Doh. Doh doh doh, doh doh doh, doh.
| Dm7 | G7 |
Doh. Doh doh doh, doh da (Aaaaaaow!)
Valerie
| Eb5 | Eb5 | F5 | F5 |
Well sometimes I go out by myself and I look across the water.
| Eb5 | Eb5 | Fm7 (Fsus2) | Fm7 (Fsus2) |
And I think of all the things, what you’re doing, and in my head, I paint a picture.
Mark Ronson on the web
