I Wrote That: Corinne Bailey Rae on 20 years of ‘Put Your Records On’

‘I’m really indebted to Put Your Records On. It opened a million doors for me,’ Corinne Bailey Rae tells M. ‘It really helped my other songs get heard and allowed me to do what I wanted, which makes me feel very lucky.’

Written with songwriters Steve Chrisanthou and John Beck, the single transformed Corinne into a household name after reaching number two in the UK singles chart in February 2006. The singer-songwriter — who also became the first female winner of BBC Sound Of… that year — then went one better the following month as her self-titled debut album went straight to number one. The success of the record latterly saw Corinne pick up two MOBO awards and score multiple Grammy and BRIT Award nominations.

20 years on from her breakthrough moment, the same creative spark that inspired Put Your Records On endures.

‘I always remember this really great thing André 3000 once said, about how all our ideas exist three feet above our heads,’ Corinne explains. ‘Whoever cares about them enough pulls them down, and I feel that’s how music works sometimes. You’re not birthing it, you’re pulling it down from wherever it is. In that sense, anyone can do it.’

'Put Your Records On helped my other songs get heard and allowed me to do what I wanted.'

Among the records Corinne fondly remembers her parents playing during her childhood were Rainy Night in Georgia by George Benson, Pick Up the Pieces by the Average White Band and The Secret Life of Plants by Stevie Wonder. When it came to finding her own voice, she found early inspiration in the likes of Billie Holiday and Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain.

‘I didn’t think I had a good voice, as a lot of the singing at school was too technical,’ Corinne recalls. ‘It was through discovering Billie and Kurt, and understanding how voices could be different, that new worlds opened up to me. There are all these different textures to voices. Hearing Kurt sing felt like I was being given permission to use mine as I wanted to.’

Nirvana, and specifically their celebrated 1993 MTV Unplugged performance, proved to be a key early songwriting influence for Corinne, motivating her as a teenager to start a band with one of her best friends.

‘I’d always loved pop music, but there was no way of taking it apart,’ she explains. ‘Hearing Nirvana and watching Kurt play guitar was really important as you could work out how he did it. Nirvana was similar to the soul music that I loved — artists pouring their heart out; authentic emotions [being] so important.’

The live music scene in Corinne’s home city of Leeds was fertile ground for her musical ambitions, with venues like The Well and The Cockpit granting her access to watch various music creators up close and personal: ‘Leeds had a really big music moment during the nineties where every pub had a live stage. Even though they were local [venues], it felt like stepping onto a superhighway which could take you places.’

Local club night Brighton Beach, held at the now-closed Cockpit and boasting a rich variety of genres across its speakers, was also instrumental in helping Corinne fine-tune her sound.

‘When I started working at that club, I heard so much funk, soul and jazz — the kind of music I’d grown up on,’ she remembers. ‘The stage was opposite the bar, and working there was like a music education. When I started writing my own music, I pulled on these soulful sounds for my debut single Like A Star. I was also into Leeds’ jazz scene, and getting to know jazz musicians helped me raise my game.’

Things began to accelerate for Corinne’s music career in 2004. After signing to Global Talent Publishing off the back of a demo of Like A Star, the singer-songwriter quit her job on the jewellery counter at Harvey Nichols and headed to London.

‘I had this portfolio of music that I used to get into rooms with producers,’ she remembers. ‘In those days, you had to go to a proper studio to record — you couldn’t just flip-open a laptop. I ended up writing all these different songs with different people, which is why there are so many collaborators on my debut album.’

It was through Gary Davies’ Good Groove publishing company that Corinne was first introduced to Put Your Records On’s co-writers Steve and John, with the former’s basement studio becoming the venue for many of the recording sessions for Corinne’s debut.

‘I’d written this guitar riff sitting on my bed and it became the starting place for Put Your Records On — it’s the first thing you hear in the song,’ she tells M about the track’s origins. ‘It was really collaborative. My style is more rangey and dreamy than Steve’s, which was more insistent and brought in these rhythmic and melodic elements. John and I would then bounce ideas back and forth.

‘It’s a song I could have only written with them. Their [writing] style was to make it fun in the studio, and there was no brow-furrowing. The vibe in the studio was really light, and that comes across in the song.’

'I really wanted to push myself with the lyrics.'

Written over two sessions, the melodic structure of Put Your Records On was captured in the first before the train down to London for the second inspired Corinne to write the lyrics.

‘I really wanted to push myself with the words,’ she explains. ‘The lyrics were about specific things that had happened to me; having more confidence in my look; my ethnicity. But they were also about the freedom of putting your records on and how that brings you happiness, like my dad’s stack of 7-inch singles.’

With over 950 million Spotify streams to date — no doubt helped by the song going viral in 2020 thanks to a TikTok cover by US indie artist Ritt Momney — it’s clear that Put Your Records On still holds a special place in people’s hearts.

‘I’m super grateful for it,’ Corinne tells M. ‘I’ve been playing this song for 20 years and it resonates differently in different places. I love hearing people’s stories about it and how new generations have found it. With younger fans, it makes me think how funny it is that it came out before some of them were even born!’

‘Sometimes, leaning into your individual sound as a songwriter is really important.'

With four albums to her name, Corinne is a great believer in songwriters making time for themselves and having faith in their ideas blooming.

‘Anyone can find the next brilliant thing, but you have to devote time for your ideas to come through,’ she says. ‘Working with other people can help. You need to find collaborators who can challenge you, or help you come up with things you wouldn’t have thought of or dared to do. I remember thinking our record didn’t really fit — it wasn’t pop or soul, but that’s what made it connect.

‘Sometimes, leaning into your individual sound as a songwriter is really important. It’s OK to rewrite and keep moving. If you’re stuck, pivot to something else.’

It’s an approach Corinne adopted for her most recent album, 2023’s Mercury Prize-nominated Black Rainbows: ‘I treated it like a side project that would never come out. It didn’t need to be in relation to what I’d done before. In the end, it’s become one of my most important records.’

Currently working on new material while continuing to hone her skills as a songwriter and producer, Corinne is always embracing her creative freedom.

‘I'm always looking to improve, and I feel in a really good space right now,’ she says. ‘Black Rainbows has meant that, suddenly, everything is open. My music feels really genre-less and rule-free. It’s an exciting point where I feel like I can do anything.’