Amy Winehouse » Turntablr

The Girl From Ipanema, Amy Winehouse

My best of 2011 list begins with a posthumous album by Amy Winehouse, Lioness: Hidden Treasures. The album contains covers of classics such as “Valerie,” recordings of original songs like “Best Friends, Right?” and “Between the Cheats,” as well as a nasty collaboration with Nas in “Like Smoke.”

Throughout the album, Winehouse displays her impressive vocal and stylistic range, from syrupy ballads to bubbling bits of doo-wop and jazz. For someone entering the Winehouse for his first time since hearing “Rehab” on the radio – as I’m sure much of America, like myself, has done recently – Lioness is indeed filled with some hidden treasures. She holds her own in a duet with Tony Bennett, and there’s an intimate moment at the end of the album where Winehouse talks about Don Hathaway, a hero of hers—two all-time crooners in the same sentence!

The song above is a rendition of “The Girl From Ipanema” Winehouse recorded when she was just 18 years old. Remember the “bubbling bits of doo-wop and jazz” I was talking about earlier? Let the snare snap and the bass hum as Winehouse’s lips transform tones into trumpet calls. Listen as palm trees sway in the violin’s breeze and see if your feet don’t demand a tapdance or two.

Help Yourself, Amy Winehouse
I was pretty saddened when I heard about Amy Winehouse’s death this weekend. Although I had long ago resigned myself to the near impossibility of a third album, I still liked to hold out hope that she might get herself together in a studio long enough to record a follow-up to her 2007 breakthrough sophomore effort Back To Black. Alas, her demons proved too insurmountable for her to endure. Fortunately, she did leave us with some incredible music, most notably the low-key jazzy R&B of her under the radar 2003 debut Frank. Prior to her death on Saturday, not many people in the U.S. knew Winehouse musically for more than “Rehab,” but after my sister bought a copy of Frank in Italy back in 2007, I have long considered her debut album to be superior to her follow-up. It represents a point in Winehouse’s career at which her personal struggles were not unlike those of many other typical rock stars; her alcohol and drug habits had yet to entirely consume her persona. Rather than the brassy horns and throwback soul of Black, Amy’s first album presents her as somewhat of a British Lauryn Hill, singing hip-hop influenced R&B with vintage elements and a Billie Holliday-biting tone. “Help Yourself,” not available on the U.S. version of Frank, is one of the most charming, and now eerily prophetic, tracks on the record. Over a smoky horn sample and drum beat, Winehouse chides a clueless boyfriend, telling him, “I can’t help you / if you don’t help yourself.” Those words seem rather unfortunate looking back now, as ultimately, Winehouse could not help herself. The song, which also a boasts a wonderful saxophone solo, however, is still a standing testament to her short, but wonderful, musical legacy. A talented star gone before her time. RIP.

This song should have been huge. Really, it should have been. Alas, the American populace was too busy rocking out to Rihanna and Akon in the summer of 2007 (clearly a lot has changed since then) to notice this gem from across the pond. That year, British superproducer Mark Ronson, who has worked with the diverse likes of Lily Allen, Duran Duran, and Ghostface Killah, dropped his second solo album, Version. As per his usual style, it featured raved-up, soul-horn makeovers of contemporary pop and rock hits, featuring bizarre reinterpretations of songs by Coldplay, Kaiser Chiefs, and a particularly strange cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” However, the highlight by far is the reimagining of the Zutons’ “Valerie,” featuring the vocal stylings of Ms. Amy Winehouse.

The Zutons’ original is grungy and sluggish, but Ronson, with Winehouse’s sassy vocals and an amazing string and horn arrangement, turns “Valerie” into a long-lost Motown gem. Stabs of horn bring back that classic Detroit sound, while Winehouse, still a phenomenal vocalist (regardless of what you may think of her personal life), delivers a spirited and soulful vocal performance. Her raspy belts and syllabic mangling sound exactly like the vintage torch singers of yesteryear . This song is exceedingly underrated; do yourself a favor and check it out. Here’s hoping that Winehouse will have another album out soon.