Amy Winehouse

Related Content

• 23. Tom Wilfong and Vanessa Safie of Copperpots
  May 1, 2013
• Thea Pizzeria: Hospital Area's Cafe for Lunch
  January 8, 2013
• Diana Ross at Hard Rock Live February 23
  February 23, 2012
• Diana Ross Appearing at Hard Rock Live February 23, Refuses to Speak with Crossfade
  February 16, 2012
• Etta James Dead at 73, R.I.P. to a Queen of Rhythm & Blues
  January 20, 2012

More About

• Eric Burdon
• Amy Winehouse
• Etta James
• Diana Ross

Warning: This will hurt, but kindly access your memory banks and retrieve two commercials: "Seagram's golden wine coooolers/They're wet and they're dry/My my my" and that heinous Chili's bit — not the faux doo-wop tune but the smoky blues number — "Chili's ... baby back riiiiiiibs ..." Got 'em? Good — because a sizable chunk of Back to Black, Amy Winehouse's sophomore disc, sounds like those very jingles: white people copping black soul in order to sell booze and ribs. Oh sure, the sassy Brit babe who loves to party tabloid-style has a robust set of pipes, an alleged eating disorder, and sexy lyrics about love gone wrong. Whatever. Songs like "You Know I'm No Good," "Me & Mr. Jones," and "Wake Up Alone" are nothing more than cheap retro-R&B novelties. There's the supper-club rip, the neo-Motown jam, the jazzy Ella thing, and so on — which is fine for selling soul food to suburban mall-walkers or for titillating the country that gave us Eric Burdon. But may I suggest you save your hard-earned cash for a deluxe reissue of Etta James at Last!, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You?, or Diana Ross?