Today marks the ten-year anniversary of the influential album Back to Black, released October 27 2006, five years before Amy Winehouse's untimely death. The album was praised for both Winehouse's soulful voice and the emotion of her songwriting. It was called "a 21st-century soul classic." Even the more mixed reviews, such as the one from Rolling Stone's Christian Hoard, admitted "The tunes don't always hold up. But the best ones are impossible to dislike."
In a time such as 2006, when the pop charts listed such tracks as Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous," James Blunt's "You're Beautiful," and of course, "Sexy Back," Back to Black was welcome proof that pop music didn't have to sacrifice soul to make an impact on the modern culture. The album sold 43,021 copies its first week in the U.K, earning it the number 3 spot on the U.K albums chart. Back to Black also earned high rankings on many publications Top Albums of 2006 lists, including Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and Entertainment Weekly. By the end of the year, the album received a platinum certification from the British Phonographic Industry.
In the controversial biography Amy, My Daughter, written by Winehouse's father Mitch, he recalls her first experience working with Mark Ronson on the title track. "Mark had come up with a piano riff that became the verse chords to ‘Back to Black’. Behind the piano, he put a kick drum, a tambourine and ‘tons of reverb’. Amy loved it, and it was the first song she recorded for the new album."
This was the beginning of a productive musical partnership between Winehouse and Ronson. According to Mitch, it was Ronson's influence that brought one of Winehouse's most iconic songs, "Rehab," into being. "She told him about the time at my house after she’d been in hospital when everyone had been going on at her about her drinking. ‘You know they tried to make me go to rehab, and I told them, no, no, no.’ That’s quite gimmicky,’ Mark replied. ‘It sounds hooky. You should go back to the studio and we should turn that into a song.’ Of course, Amy had written that line in one of her books ages ago. She’d told me before she was planning to write a song about what had happened that day, but that was the moment ‘Rehab’ came to life."
Today, the influences of Amy Winehouse and her work can be heard in the music of Adele, Lady Gaga and Lana Del Rey. After her death, Gaga was quoted saying, "Amy changed pop music forever, I remember knowing there was hope, and feeling not alone because of her. She lived jazz, she lived the blues."
Be sure to take the time to revisit the album in its entirety. You can listen to the title track again below.