Back To Black

WE remember Amy Winehouse now as a towering icon of popular culture, a tragic totem of natural talent in an unfeeling world – but back in 2005 she was just another young singer flitting in and out of the public eye. Those eyeliner swooshes were mere wingettes, her beehive in larval form. She’d released Frank two years earlier and enjoyed the first flushes of fame in the UK but was little known in America, where Frank would not even get a release until 2007. When she wasn’t contractually obliged to be on stage, Amy would be holding court in Camden pubs, revelling in the attention and falling hard, fast and very publicly for Blake Fielder-Civil.

What she wasn’t doing much of was writing. She’d gained a bit of a reputation for procrastinating at this point. “We heard from Salaam [] saying that she just always took so long to write,” says assistant engineer Mike Makowski, dragging out his O’s for dramatic effect. But two things happened that sped the creative process along. First, she had her heart broken by Fielder-Civil. Second, she met Mark Ronson. Winehouse realised a musical kinship with the young producer; she knew that she wanted a ’60s girl-group sound, while Ronson had an ear for a hook and an affection for vintage studio equipment. The pair famously came up with “Rehab”