

For “Love Is a Losing Game,” Ronson knew Winehouse hated strings, calling them “hammy” and “schlocky… So I kind of did them, not really behind her back but, ‘Let me do some strings behind her back and maybe she’ll like it,’” he says, as the song plays in the background. There are equally interesting tidbits for all the songs. “The only thing, as a producer, you think everything should rhyme because that’s pop structure, and I remember when she showed me the chorus in ‘Back to Black’ - ‘We only said goodbye in words/ I died a thousand times’ - I was like, ‘Do you think that’s weird? Should you change it?’ She looked at me a little bit dumbfounded like, ‘Why would I change it? That is what came out. “I didn’t really question the lyrics,” he says. Let me go write something to it,’” he recalls. “She came to the studio at noon and she was instantly, ‘Oh, cool. Ronson says he was inspired by the music she played him and came up with the piano part for “Black to Black” and added the drums and tambourine. Winehouse’s best friend Juliette Ashby, goddaughter Dionne Bromfield, first manager Nick Shymansky and Island A&R executive Darcus Beese (now president of Island Records U.S.) are also among the interviewees.įor the title track, Winehouse reveals in the film that on her time off she’d play pool all day in the pub and listen to doo-wop and ’60s Motown girl groups on the jukebox, which influenced her. The accounts are often paired with intimate footage of Winehouse creating and singing in the studio, as well as close-ups of her handwritten lyrics. In fresh interviews for the project, Back to Black producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, mix engineer Tom Elmhirst, and studio musicians from the Dap-Kings listen back to the songs and recall memories of the writing and recording sessions. As often as not, though, the songs on Back to Black are universal, songs that anyone, even Joss Stone, could take to the top of the charts, such as "Love Is a Losing Game" or the title song ("We only said good bye with words, I died a hundred times/You go back to her, and I go back to black").Amy Winehouse 'Back to Black' Documentary Announced: Watch the Trailer She states her case against "Rehab" on the knockout first single with some great lines: "They tried to make me go to rehab I won't go go go, I'd rather be at home with Ray" ( Charles, that is). Also in similar fashion to Frank, her eye for details and her way of relating them are delightful.
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(They certainly know how to evoke the era too Remi's "Tears Dry on Their Own" is a sparkling homage to the Motown chestnut "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," and Ronson summons a host of Brill Building touchstones on his tracks.) As before, Winehouse writes all of the songs from her experiences, most of which involve the occasionally riotous and often bittersweet vagaries of love. Winehouse was inspired by girl group soul of the '60s, and fortunately Ronson and Remi are two of the most facile and organic R&B producers active. The making of Amy Winehouse's classic 2006 album, Back to Black. With Amy Winehouse, Nick Shymansky, Juliette Ashby, Dionne Bromfield.
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With producer Salaam Remi returning from Frank, plus the welcome addition of Mark Ronson (fresh off successes producing for Christina Aguilera and Robbie Williams), Back to Black has a similar sound to Frank but much more flair and spark to it. Amy Winehouse: Back to Black: Directed by Jeremy Marre. (That fact may help to explain why fans were so scared by press allegations that Winehouse had deliberately lost weight in order to present a slimmer appearance.) Although Back to Black does see her deserting jazz and wholly embracing contemporary R&B, all the best parts of her musical character emerge intact, and actually, are all the better for the transformation from jazz vocalist to soul siren. The story of Back to Black is one in which celebrity and the potential of commercial success threaten to ruin Amy Winehouse, since the same insouciance and playfulness that made her sound so special when she debuted could easily have been whitewashed right out of existence for this breakout record.
