Back to Black came out on 27 October 2006. On Wednesday night, a few days short of twenty years later, the people who made it played it start to finish at the Roundhouse in Camden, a short walk from where Amy Winehouse lived.
The show was billed as Amy Winehouse Back to Black 20 and ran for one night. Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, who produced the album, led it with The Amy Winehouse Band and her long-time musical director Dale Davis. Paul O’Duffy and p*nut, who also worked on the record, were involved, and so was Darcus Beese, the Island Records executive who signed her.
Who sang what
Eleven singers shared the songs: Baby Rose, Corinne Bailey Rae, FLO, Jessie Reyez, Jorja Smith, Lianne La Havas, Nia Smith, Sasha Keable, Skye Newman, Terri Walker and Yebba. NME and Universal Music both published the running order, and these are the ones they agree on:
- Corinne Bailey Rae: “Back to Black”, with Ronson on piano
- Yebba: “Love Is a Losing Game”
- Lianne La Havas: “You Know I’m No Good”
- Nia Smith: “Tears Dry On Their Own”
- Skye Newman: “Addicted”
- Terri Walker: “Me & Mr Jones”
- Sasha Keable: “Just Friends”
- FLO: “He Can Only Hold Her”
Everyone came back for “Valerie” at the end. It’s a Zutons song, but most people under forty know it as hers.
How it was put together
Nobody was asked to do an impression of her, and that’s the main reason it held up. Each singer took one song and sang it in their own voice, with the original band behind them. Ronson said beforehand that “doing justice to the legacy of Back to Black is the order of the night.”
The line-up was almost all women, and it covered two generations. Terri Walker and Corinne Bailey Rae were making records before Winehouse broke. FLO and Skye Newman were children when Back to Black came out.
The record
Back to Black went to No. 1 in the UK and was the country’s best-selling album of 2007. It won five Grammys. It has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide and is certified 15 times platinum in the UK.
A 20th-anniversary deluxe edition came out on 23 October on UMR/Island. It adds four unreleased demos, B-sides, her 8 February 2007 show at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, and new liner notes from Ronson and Remi.
Watching and listening
- BBC Two and iPlayer: Amy Winehouse: Back to Black at 20, from 24 October
- Radio 2: the audio, on Jo Whiley’s show, Monday 26 October, 7–9pm
- BBC Music on YouTube: individual performances, posted 24 October
Start with Yebba’s “Love Is a Losing Game”.