Amy Winehouse 'You Know I'm No Good'

Chart Peak: 18

YouTube

Best British Female of the moment according to the Brits voters, Amy Winehouse is on top form... She follows up the stomping No. 1 hit 'Rehab' with the bluesy, soulful 'You Know I'm No Good' - a stunning epiphany that "perhaps you can behave as badly as all those guys that have messed you around.

It's hard to know where to start with this one - other than by pointing out that of course 'Rehab' was not a Number One single: it peaked at 7, although thanks to its record-breaking chart run it's surely outsold the majority of singles that did top the chart in pop history. Despite that and the success of the Back To Black album, and even that of her debut LP come to that, in early 2007 there was still a sense that Winehouse was an act on the way up: and we were only starting to glimpse how big she was going to be. At this point she was just about to cross the border between being a successful musician and becoming part of the culture, somebody you could refer to in almost any conversation and be understood.

With hindsight it's easy to say that she'd have been better off not crossing over so far, knowing where that led. But at the time 'You Know I'm No Good', as second single from the album, seemed a key point in establishing that movement. It proved to be one of the lesser hits from there, but at the time it doubled her tally of Top 40 appearances and proved she wouldn't just be an album act, as well as being the impetus for the album to reach the top of the chart (though I believe sales that week were lower than when it entered at 3). It also seemed to have been written to reinforce her image as well. But is it a good song? Well, actually, yes, although it was far too overplayed for me to appreciate that at the time. Although Mark Ronson's productions soon fell into formula, he does do a genuinely good job here, blending the jazz and hip-hop elements seamlessly. And the horn arrangements are superb, particularly the descending passage in the middle section which feels like it's commenting on the protagonist as much as backing her. And whilst I'm not generally all that fond of people singing about how debauched they are, comparing this to the Sugababes track immediately before just shows how much more of a character this protagonist is. It's for this reason that the alternative radio edit (not featured here) with extra rapped verses by Ghostface Killer doesn't entirely work.

So, a good track that improves the end of the album, but maybe it would have better for all concerned had it not been quite as big after all.

Also appearing on: Now 65, 67, 68, 69
Available on: Massive R & B - Spring 2007

Amy Winehouse 'Love Is A Losing Game'

Chart Peak: 46

YouTube

Ah, what can you say about Amy Winehouse? Well, rather a lot by the looks of things, but I'm not sure I can be bothered with any of it. In fact I even take a certain perverse pride in not being entirely sure whether that man glimpsed in the video is Blake Fielder-Civil.

Anyway, let's ignore the whole soap opera, except to note that one possible explanation for the underwhelming chart performance of the single was that she wasn't available to promote it much around the time of release (it was reported that a planned video shoot had to be cancelled in her absence, hence the cutting-room scrapings that ended up being used). Another reason is surely that it wasn't really necessary to pull a fifth single off the already very successful Back To Black album; although a deluxe version of the album was released at the same time, this wasn't new to it. It's a slightly odd choice of single at any time, because whilst well-received it's not an obviously dramatic attention-grabbing track. That's more a strength than a weakness, in this case, and in a way it seems like a better justification for all the fuss than some of her bigger hits; but it doesn't inspire strong reactions. It does give the album a sense of winding down and might even have been a good place to end it.

Also appearing on: Now 65, 66, 67, 68
Available on: Back To Black