Crowned by her signature, shelf-toppling beehive and a thick slash of eyeliner that she wore like warpaint, Amy Winehouse cut an unmistakable figure — a soul-obsessed, retro original whose earth-shattering voice and defiant style would leave an indelible mark on modern music.
On Oct. 27 2006, Winehouse released her sophomore LP Back to Black — a potent, unflinching collection of heartfelt songs displaying a once-in-a-generation talent — and would go on to peak at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and scoop five Grammy awards, including best new artist. The London artist’s death in 2011, aged just 27, brought a premature end to a singular career, and imbued Back to Black with a greater poignancy that has only deepened over time; its legacy is still expanding, too, having ranked No. 8 on Apple Music’s best albums of all time list in 2024.
On U.K. shores, the album’s enduring hold on listeners is reflected in its extraordinary longevity: According to the Official Charts Company, it ranks among the 15 biggest albums in British chart history (No. 11) nearly two decades later, shifting over 4.6 million chart units to date. An expanded, three-disc reissue featuring previously b-sides, unreleased demos, and live takes from a 2007 Amsterdam Paradiso concert arrives this week via Island (Oct. 23), from which the album is expected to receive a fresh chart boost in line with its 20th anniversary.
Winehouse’s smoky, effortlessly charming 2003 debut album Frank captured the imagination of jazz and R&B fans in London – she regularly performed at iconic Soho haunts and pubs across her home borough of Camden – but it was Back to Black that distilled her throwback sensibilities into something entirely contemporary and enraptured the entire world in the process. A devout fan of ‘60s girl groups such as The Ronettes, The Shangri-La’s and The Shirelles, Winehouse channelled their melodrama and wall-of-sound grandeur through a distinctly personal lens, tempering all and any romance with mordant wit, cynicism and the bruised intimacy of her own lived experiences.
“Amy loved all the old girl groups and how their songs captured young love as all-consuming: either the most wonderful thing in the world or complete devastation, with nothing in between,” explains producer and composer Paul O’Duffy, who worked on “Wake Up Alone” with Winehouse in his north London home studio. “She was drawn to that kind of music, but it also seemed to reflect who she was and how she approached affairs of the heart.”
For the creation of Back to Black, Winehouse worked across studios in London and New York, finding kindred spirits in lead producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi. Alongside Island Records A&R Darcus Beese, the pair helped assemble a cast of old-school-minded producers, co-writers and musicians, including Brooklyn outfit The Dap-Kings, who served as the backing band for legendary soul and funk singer Sharon Jones, a major influence on Winehouse.
Much of the album took shape at the band’s Daptone Studios, an all-analog facility with a recording setup suited to the timeless sound Winehouse and her producers were chasing. Across the record, cocktail-kit drums, brassy swells and stabs, lush strings, twinkling keys and groove-heavy basslines provided the backdrop for Winehouse’s torch songs of love and wounded pride, yielding era-defining hits such as the title track, “Rehab,” and “You Know I’m No Good.”
Writing for Billboard upon release, Kerri Mason described Back to Black as “a guileless, brutal breakup album that can sit with the best of them, set to the sounds of music’s finest early rock moments.” She praised Ronson and Remi for expertly capturing Winehouse’s love of soul, theatrical doo-wop and Motown, while casting the singer as a singular talent: “an entirely new creature, a product of hip-hop and jazz, experience, not innocence.”
Speaking to Billboard U.K. over a series of phone calls, those who were in Winehouse’s orbit during the making of the classic album look back on its creative journey 20 years on.
