Six Degrees of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black

Amy Winehouse's breakthrough LP Back to Black is often overshadowed by its most famous line: "They tried to make me go to rehab, I said, 'No, no, no.'" Amid the British singer's infamous struggles with substance abuse and ongoing relationship drama, it's easy to forget that she put out one of the best records of the last decade. With Mark Ronson's help on the production end, Back to Black married '60s... soul with inflections of modern R&B, fronted by Winehouse's throaty contralto rasp. "Tears Dry On Their Own" uses a sample interpolation of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," while "Me and Mr. Jones" features doo-wop-style backup singers. And several of the tracks are backed by the horn section of Brooklyn-based funk and soul traditionalists the Dap-Kings, who record their music like they are in the '60s, using analog equipment. Much of Back to Black could've be mistaken for songs made decades ago, but it's the lyrics that bring it back to the 21st century eyebrow-raising lines like, "What kind of fuckery is this?/ You made me miss the Slick Rick gig" and "Tell your boyfriend, next time he around/ To buy his own weed and don't wear my shit down." Some of Winehouse's woes are about normal, seemingly-innocent heartbreak ("Love Is A Losing Game," "He Can Only Hold Her"), but there are at least as many instances when she admits that things are better when she's not drinking, and booze is the root of her problems. As much as her personal life can be a distraction from her music, her willingness to share it all is as crucial to Back to Black as the music itself.

Amy Winehouse might have been one of the first in a long line of young, white British girls to make waves in the U.S. in the aughts (Duffy, Adele, et al.), but British blue-eyed soul really began with Dusty Springfield in the '60s. Springfield's career spanned about 40 years, but the very clear frontrunner in her collection is her Atlantic Records debut, 1969's Dusty in Memphis. Springfield took inspiration from girl groups... like the Shirelles, whose music helped her bring elements of doo-wop and Motown to the U.K., but she also combined them with pieces of folk and R&B. It goes without saying that the hit here is "Son of a Preacher Man," a track originally turned down (and later recorded by) Aretha Franklin, but just as crucial are the sultry "Breakfast In Bed," the majestic Randy Newman-penned "Just One Smile," and a handful of songs penned by power songwriting duo Carole King and Gerry Goffin.

Jazz pioneer Sarah Vaughan was bold and fearless, both in her singing style and in her will to make sure her voice was heard. She dropped out of high school in the late 1930s to pursue music, and as a teen living in Newark, New Jersey, she'd sneak out to New York, where she entered (and won) an amateur talent contest at the Apollo Theater. Vaughan's warm contralto croon was stunning, which... can mostly be credited to her emotional phrasing the way she smoothly jumps octaves in songs like "I'm Scared" and "September Song," or draws out words with a low vibrato in others like "You're Blas" and "All Too Soon." Vaughan made woebegone sound beautiful with lines like "I'm so alone, I have no love to call my own," and "I must have you or no one/ And so I'm through with love." But when she wasn't singing about being lovesick and lonely, she was known to friends as "Sailor" for her creative vocabulary she was even quoted on The Dick Cavett Show as saying, "I can out-cuss Popeye the Sailor Man." Had Vaughan combined her foul mouth with her artistry, perhaps Amy Winehouse's words wouldn't feel like such a contradiction to the old-school music behind them.

Though Mark Ronson has released a few "solo" LPs, starting with 2003's Here Comes The Fuzz and 2007's Version, his strongest suits are DJ-ing and assisting others in their music-making endeavors the prime example being Back to Black, on which he produced half the tracks and was crucial in giving the record its '60s-meets-R&B edge. (Although Winehouse doesn't think he should be getting so much credit.) On his third effort, Record... Collection, he moves out of the '60s and into the '80s and beyond. And while there's no shortage in appearances from the likes of dance-pop up-and-comer MNDR, ex-Pipette Rose Elinor Dougall, Ghostface Killah, Spank Rock, and others, Ronson finally steps out from behind the curtain and sings on several of the tracks, proving that he can work it from both sides.

When producer Mark Ronson wanted to give Back to Black a horn section that matched the album's retro vibe, he went to the Brooklyn-based group the Dap-Kings, who are usually fronted by a more experienced soul powerhouse, Sharon Jones. Recording out of an apartment-turned-studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are the backbone of Daptone Records a label known for its flawless vintage sound, thanks to their exclusive use of... analog recording equipment. They already had two LPs under their belts by the time Back to Black was released in 2006, but 2007's 100 Days, 100 Nights put them in front of the larger audience they deserved, in part because the Dap-Kings supported Winehouse on tour. On 100 Days, Jones belts her way through the kiss-off number "Nobody's Baby" and the gospel of "Answer Me," and she and the rest of the band perform with an authenticity not found in most other soul revivalists today.

Around the time Amy Winehouse's Back to Black success was at its peak, a Jewish dude from Ann Arbor, Michigan, was pursuing a hip-hop career under the name DJ Haircut. He recorded a couple of soul songs with the intention to use them as samples in his other work until Stones Throw founder Peanut Butter Wolf heard them, and signed him on to record a whole album. 2009's A Strange Arrangement,... the debut from Mayer Hawthorne (real name Andrew Mayer Cohen), is similar to Back to Black in its fusion of soul, hip-hop and R&B. But while Arrangement is mostly about love, too, Hawthorne and his Curtis Mayfield tenor take it to a place where love can be a fun game, not just a losing one "One Track Mind" is a send-up to gold diggers, and the "Can't Hurry Love"-channeling "Your Easy Lovin' Ain't Pleasin' Nothin'" is about being led on. One of the most exciting numbers, "The Ills," even gives some advice that perhaps Winehouse could use: "You know the ills of the world, they can get you down/ But then you get back up."