Back to Black: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Amy Winehouse's 2006 heartbreak masterpiece sits at a crossroads: 1960s Brill Building girl-group melodrama, Brooklyn retro-soul instrumentation, hard-bop jazz phrasing and Camden ska swagger, all welded to brutally confessional lyrics about Blake Fielder-Civil. This mix traces the records she played Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi in the studio, the London scene that raised her, and the generation of British singers who followed her through the door she kicked open.

The Kynda mix for Back to Black

• Key Influence · Leader of the Pack by The Shangri-Las (1964). Winehouse handed Mark Ronson a Shangri-Las compilation at their first New York session as the blueprint for the record: teenage tragedy sung dead straight over cavernous drums and spoken-word melodrama. The funeral-march tempo and tolling bells of the title track 'Back to Black' lift directly from this school, and Winehouse's narrator-as-doomed-girl voice is the Shangri-Las' legacy transplanted into adult infidelity and addiction.
• Influencia Obscura · Funky Kingston by Toots and the Maytals (1973). Winehouse's Jamaican streak is the least discussed strand of her sound. She recorded a cover of Toots's 'Monkey Man' during the Back to Black sessions with the Dap-Kings, and it became a live staple and B-side. The rocksteady upstroke surfaces inside the album's horn arrangements and in the swaggering shuffle of 'Just Friends', connecting Camden's ska inheritance to the Brooklyn soul band backing her.
• Local Roots · One Step Beyond... by Madness (1979). Madness are Camden's house band, and Winehouse was a Camden fixture — the Hawley Arms, the Good Mixer, the Roundhouse. Their fusion of Jamaican ska with north London music-hall comedy and sentiment is precisely the local dialect Winehouse spoke, and Suggs's storytelling-with-an-accent approach licensed her to sing 'Rehab' in unvarnished Southgate English rather than transatlantic soul vowels.
• Beyond the Medium · Quadrophenia by Franc Roddam (1979). Winehouse's styling drew on British mod and 1950s pin-up iconography as much as on Motown: the eyeliner flick, the tailoring, the scooter-era sharpness crossed with Bettie Page hair. Roddam's film is the defining document of that subculture's look and its self-dramatising romanticism, and the aesthetic logic of Back to Black's sleeve and videos — vintage styling as emotional armour — belongs to the same tradition.
• Peer · 100 Days, 100 Nights by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings (2007). The Dap-Kings are literally the band on Back to Black's Ronson-produced tracks, and Sharon Jones was their frontwoman — the Brooklyn Daptone operation had been making analogue 1960s soul for years before Winehouse arrived. Jones was pointed about having been there first. This record is the parallel universe version: the same musicians, the same tape machines, a different singer, released months after Winehouse went global.
• Key Collaborator · Version by Mark Ronson (2007). Ronson produced roughly half of Back to Black — including 'Rehab' and the title track — in New York with the Dap-Kings, and the album made his name. Version is the immediate follow-up: horn-driven covers in the same analogue idiom, featuring Winehouse herself on a version of The Zutons' 'Valerie' that became as ubiquitous as anything on her own record. It is the house style laid bare.
• Legacy · 21 by Adele (2011). Adele has credited Winehouse directly, saying Frank and Back to Black gave her the confidence that a British girl could write her own confessional songs and be heard, and that Winehouse's success cleared the American path she then walked. 21 applies the same formula — one collapsed relationship, soul-rooted arrangements, plain-spoken lyrics — on an even larger scale, and both singers emerged from the BRIT School orbit.

What influenced Back to Black

• Phil Spector by Phil Spector. A music writer identifies Spector’s production style in the album’s title song. “Mournful strings and an ominous tolling bell create a funereal atmosphere, which is dramatically juxtaposed with a danceable, retro-slanted musical backdrop inspired by 60s girl-group pop and Phil Spector’s wall of sound production values.” (uDiscover Music)
• Our Version of Events by Emeli Sandé. Hopper reports that Back to Black motivated Sandé while she made her album. “Emeli Sandé once admitted that Back to Black made her want to up her game while she was making her 2012 album, Our Version of Events .” (American Songwriter)
• Back to Black by Sam Taylor-Johnson. The director says the album’s lyrics guided the 2024 film’s storytelling. ““All that love is poured into [2006 album] Back To Black . The lyrics guided Matt and I into the way we told the story,” Taylor-Johnson says.” (Empire)
• Live by Donny Hathaway. Live (Donny Hathaway) — ghost for Back to Black “Hathaway", in reference to Ray Charles and Donny Hathaway.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica by The Ronettes (1964). Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica (The Ronettes) — titan for Back to Black “The film features interviews by producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, who worked half and half on the album, along with the Dap-Kings, Remi's music team, Ronettes singer Ronnie Spector, and close friends of Winehouse, including Nick Shy…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Motown. Mead describes the album’s backing as Motown-style. “David Mead of Paste also viewed it as a departure from Frank and said that it sets her singing to Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson's "synthetic Motown -style backdrop".” (Wikipedia)
• Jimmy Mack by Martha and the Vandellas. Murphy compares the title track’s introduction to Jimmy Mack. “John Murphy of MusicOMH compared the song's introduction to the Martha and the Vandellas song " Jimmy Mack ", adding that it continues to a "much darker place".” (Wikipedia)
• Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness by Ronnie Spector (1990). Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness (Ronnie Spector) — culture for Back to Black “The film features interviews by producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, who worked half and half on the album, along with the Dap-Kings, Remi's music team, Ronettes singer Ronnie Spector, and close friends of Winehouse, including Nick Shy…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Leader of the Pack by The Shangri-Las (1964). Leader of the Pack (The Shangri-Las) — titan for Back to Black “Ronson wrote "Back to Black" the night after he met Winehouse, explaining in a 2010 Mojo interview: I just thought, 'Let's talk about music, see what she likes.' She said she liked to go out to bars and clubs and play snooker with her bo…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Quadrophenia by Franc Roddam (1979). Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam) — culture for Back to Black (themoviedb.org)
• Aretha Franklin. Back to Black (Amy Winehouse) — legacy for Aretha Franklin (musicbrainz.org)
• Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown by Sarah Vaughan (1954). Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown (Sarah Vaughan) — titan for Back to Black “The album received positive reviews, with compliments over the "cool, critical gaze" in its lyrics, while her vocals drew comparisons to Sarah Vaughan, Macy Gray and others.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Funky Kingston by Toots and the Maytals (1973). Funky Kingston (Toots and the Maytals) — ghost for Back to Black “She also performed Toots and the Maytals' "Monkey Man".” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Vargas by Alberto Vargas (1978). Vargas (Alberto Vargas) — culture for Back to Black

Peers and kindred spirits

• Mark Ronson by Mark Ronson. Ronson shares production credit for the album. (also via Version) “The 11-track album, completed in five months, [ 20 ] was produced entirely by Remi and Ronson, with the production credits being split between them.” (Wikipedia)
• Salaam Remi by Salaam Remi. Lipsky identifies Remi as a credited producer of the album. “Back to Black was released on Island Records (Ronson's producer credit shared with the legendary Salaam Remi, who worked with Winehouse on her debut, Frank ) in October 2006.” (Billboard)
• The Rumble Strips by The Rumble Strips. The Rumble Strips remixed the title track. “"Back to Black" ( The Rumble Strips remix) Winehouse Ronson Ronson The Rumble Strips [a] 3:48” (Wikipedia)
• Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. Members of Sharon Jones’s band recorded on Back to Black; the passage does not establish a collaboration with Jones personally or with Naturally. “The band recorded six songs for Back to Black and, later, the ever-popular "Valerie" for Ronson's Versions .” (Billboard)
• Life Is Good by Nas (2012). Life Is Good (Nas) — collaborator for Back to Black “In the jazz and reggae-influenced "Me and Mr Jones" song, Winehouse sings about accepting that she never made it to a Slick Rick concert, but yet refuses to skip a Nas show as they were both close friends (Nas' last name is Jones).” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Rockferry by Duffy (2008). Rockferry (Duffy) — peer for Back to Black “The HelloBeautiful staff views "Wake Up Alone", written by Winehouse and Paul O'Duffy, as another sentimental ballad that "chronicles [the] time right after a breakup [and] when you're trying not to think of the person by keeping busy." …” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Version by Mark Ronson (2007). Version (Mark Ronson) — collaborator for Back to Black “Influenced by the pop and soul music of 1960s girl groups, Winehouse collaborated with producers Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson, along with Sharon Jones' band The Dap-Kings, to assist her on capturing the sounds from that period while blend…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Up the Bracket by The Libertines (2002). Up the Bracket (The Libertines) — geography for Back to Black (musicbrainz.org)
• Alright, Still by Lily Allen (2006). Alright, Still (Lily Allen) — peer for Back to Black (musicbrainz.org)
• Naturally by Sharon Jones (2005). Naturally (Sharon Jones) — collaborator for Back to Black “Influenced by the pop and soul music of 1960s girl groups, Winehouse collaborated with producers Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson, along with Sharon Jones' band The Dap-Kings, to assist her on capturing the sounds from that period while blend…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Club Classics Vol. One by Soul II Soul (1989). Club Classics Vol. One (Soul II Soul) — geography for Back to Black (musicbrainz.org)
• One Step Beyond... by Madness (1979). One Step Beyond... (Madness) — geography for Back to Black
• 100 Days, 100 Nights by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings (2007). 100 Days, 100 Nights (Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings) — peer for Back to Black

Who Back to Black influenced

• Amy Winehouse: Back to Black. The documentary is based on the album. “This film digs deep into how that Classic Album evolved. Using unseen footage from the Miami and New York sessions, it offers new insights into Amy’s remarkable gifts as a singer/songwriter” (Apple TV)
• 21 by Adele (2011). 21 (Adele) — legacy for Back to Black “Adele’s 21 , picked up where Winehouse’s Back to Black left off. Utilizing the same jazzy inspirations as Winehouse, Adele’s sophomore album went on to sell 20 million copies worldwide.” (American Songwriter)
• Back to Black (2024 film). The biographical film takes its name from the album. “The Sam Taylor-Johnson -directed biographical film Back to Black (2024), based on Winehouse's life, was named after the album.” (Wikipedia)
• Lost & Found by Jorja Smith (2018). Lost & Found (Jorja Smith) — legacy for Back to Black (musicbrainz.org)
• In the Lonely Hour by Sam Smith (2014). In the Lonely Hour (Sam Smith) — legacy for Back to Black (musicbrainz.org)