100 Best Albums
- OCT 27, 2006
- 11 Songs
- Back to Black · 2006
- Back to Black · 2006
- Version · 2007
- Back to Black · 2006
- Back to Black · 2006
- Back to Black · 2006
- Back to Black · 2006
- Lioness: Hidden Treasures · 2011
- Amy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) · 2006
- Lioness: Hidden Treasures · 2011
Essential Albums
- 100 Best Albums Producer Mark Ronson remembers when Amy Winehouse came in with the lyrics for “Back to Black.” They were at a studio in New York in early 2006, their first day working together. Ronson had given her a portable CD player with the song’s piano track, and Winehouse disappeared into the back for about an hour to write. What she reemerged with was masterful: bleak, funny, tough, hopelessly romantic. The chorus, though, kept tripping him up because it didn’t rhyme: “We only said goodbye with words, I died a hundred times.” He asked her to change it, but she just gave him a blank look: That’s just how it came out, she didn’t know how to change it. For all her brashness, what makes Back to Black so moving is the sense that Winehouse is constantly trying to punch through her pain—not to suppress it exactly, but to wrap it in enough barbed wire that nobody could quite reach its core. The appeal to soul music is obvious: the Motown horns (“Rehab,” “Tears Dry on Their Own”), the girl-group romance (“Back to Black”), the organic quality of the arrangements (“You Know I’m No Good”)—much of it courtesy of Brooklyn outfit The Dap-Kings. But Winehouse’s presentation and otherworldly, timeless vocals still make her music feel different—not so much an attempt to recreate the past as to honor the music she loved while still being true to the trash-talking, self-effacing millennial she was. Years before the next generation learned to temper their misery with sarcasm, memes, and deadpan fatalism, we had Amy Winehouse, fluttering around words so crass you could barely believe she was singing them at all, let alone with a horn section. The sound of Back to Black might appeal to retro-soul fans and jazz classicists, but the attitude is closer to rap. Yes, she was funny. But she wasn’t kidding.
Albums
Artist Playlists
- A soul revivalist who dug deep.
- Dark, vibrant scenes help bring timeless heartbreak to life.
- A deep love of soul music defined her signature sound.
- The nostalgic jazz and boundary-breaking pop she spawned.
- The inimitable singer at her most intimate.
More To Hear
- A singular talent lets her deepest pain pour out.
- Remembering iconic looks and Amy Winehouse.
- Artists who influenced and were inspired by Amy Winehouse.
- Estelle celebrates the 15 year anniversary of 'Back to Black.'
- Zane, Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi reflect on the album and Amy.
- "On the Luna" is Added.
More To See
About Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse was one of those once-in-a-generation artists who rerouted the direction of pop music and amassed a worldwide fanbase spanning grade-schoolers to grandmas. Born in 1983, the London-raised singer paid her dues as a session vocalist before releasing her debut album, Frank, in 2003. While Winehouse’s uncommonly gritty yet graceful voice made her a UK sensation (earning her a place on the Mercury Prize shortlist), Frank’s jazzy torch songs and chilled funk atmosphere only teased at the feisty character lurking beneath the surface of cocktail-lounge soundtracks like “F*ck Me Pumps.” However, with the help of producer Mark Ronson and Sharon Jones’ brassy backing band, The Dap-Kings, Winehouse’s outsized persona got the space to fully flourish on her Grammy-dominating 2006 sophomore release, Back to Black. Adopting the soulful sound and sassy spirit—not to mention beehive hairstyle—of ’60s girl groups, Winehouse hit upon an aesthetic that was faithfully retro enough to win over Motown-reared boomers, yet possessed a brash, profane attitude (and the tattoos to go with it) that endeared her to hip-hop heads and indie kids alike. Back to Black transformed Winehouse into the consummate anti-diva, exuding a raw, unfiltered authenticity that was at once cheekily risque (as heard in her definitive anti-sobriety anthem, “Rehab”) and emotionally shattering (the eternally devastating title track). Sadly, Back to Black was both her career apex and her swan song—she died of alcohol poisoning in 2011. But if Winehouse’s star burned all too briefly, it left a never-ending vapor trail across the mainstream, allowing artists as varied as Adele, Janelle Monáe, Sam Smith, and Lana Del Rey to pursue their own singular visions of retro-modernism.
- HOMETOWN
- Enfield, London, England
- BORN
- September 14, 1983
- GENRE
- R&B/Soul