Artist: Amy Winehouse
Track: Rehab
Album: Back to Black
Genre: R&B/Soul
Amy Jade Winehouse (born 14 September 1983 in Southgate, London, died 23 July 2011 in Camden, London) was an English singer and composer, known for her eclectic mix of various musical genres including soul, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and Rhythm and Blues.
Her musical formation went through listening to such jazz legends as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan; she was later influenced by contemporary metropolitan popular music as well.
On Back to Black, her second album and U.S. debut, singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse defines her own tradition.
With a deeply personal touch, she commands settings that meld torchy doo-wop era ballads, soul and girl-group slammers, and current hip-hop winners.
Winehouse, already famous in her native England for reckless, tipsy behavior, topped the charts there with “Rehab,” a construction that wraps her protests that Ray Charles and Donny Hathaway are more help than a clinic could be in a forthright tribute to early-’60s radio that does the Ronettes and the Drifters proud.
Despite the buzz from that instant anthem, Back to Black doesn’t shy from the heartbroken — and not just in the “Me and Mr. Jones”’ complaint that she missed a Slick Rick show.
The title track brings the real pain, one more in an album of performances that certify the 23-year-old Winehouse as an undeniable master.