The chorus, though-it kept tripping him up: “We only said goodbye in words, I died a thousand times.” “This thing in my brain went off,” he tells Apple Music, “like Producer 101. What she reemerged with was great: bleak, but funny tough, but hopelessly romantic. 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.
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.The 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. Sadly, Back to Black was both her career apex and her swan song-she died of alcohol poisoning in 2011. 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). 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.
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. Born in 1983, the London-raised singer paid her dues as a session vocalist before releasing her debut album, Frank, in 2003.
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.
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