Top 10 Amy Winehouse Songs

Photo: Rama / CC BY-SA 2.0 FR (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/fr/deed.en)

Our top 10 Amy Winehouse Songs list looks back at the very short career of a singer who showed incredible potential to be one of the biggest stars of all time. First and foremost, this Amy Winehouse song list is a tribute to one of our favorite artists of all time. All that it does is attempt to look at our favorite Amy Winehouse songs and present our feelings about those songs with a little helpful information about each individual song and album. Of course, there are so many more great ones, and everyone has their own favorites, but the top ten lists are all about choices, and that’s what also makes them fun to do and read. So we hope you enjoy this list of top 10 Amy Winehouse songs. It was both fun and sad to compose for reasons we don’t have to explain.

# 10 – Amy Amy Amy

We open our Top 10 Amy Winehouse songs list with a track from her debut album entitled Frank. The album was released in 2003. The song’s opening primal drum groove infused with a jazz snarl creates a sense of wonderment as to which direction the music is heading. The moment Amy Winehouse begins to sing with her incredibly floating melodic vocal line, the listener is instantly taken prisoner. Within moments, the desire to escape is distinguished, and the lure of Amy Winehouse’s charm captures the listener forever. And that’s the way to open up a top list of Amy Winehouse songs.

# 9 – Love Is A Losing Game

Continuing with our top 10 Amy Winehouse songs list we turn straight to her groundbreaking musical gem of an album entitled Back to Black. If you close your eyes while listening to this song, you can easily transport back to the 1960s as this momentous recording just breathes the sixties. And that is a compliment of the highest order as we feel the sixties was the most significant musical decade of all time. The song “Love Is A Losing Game” was written solely by Amy Winehouse. From a lyrical and musical standpoint, it defines who Amy was almost more than any of her other songs. It’s a poignant display of the pain she endured in her many relationships. It’s as genuine as it gets. It’s one of the most relatable songs we have ever heard.

# 8 – Valerie

The song “Valerie” has traveled many roads. The song first appeared on Mark Ronson’s solo album. “Valerie” was then added as a bonus track to the deluxe edition of Back to Black. The song was a massive hit in England. “Valerie” reached all the way to number two on the U.K. pop charts. The first version presented here is from the Amy Winehouse live DVD release I Told You I Was Trouble: Live in London. The second version is the promotional video of the Mark Ronson version Amy Winehouse recorded.

# 7 – F*** Me Pumps

Leave it to Amy Winehouse to take a pop culture saying and turn it into a dynamic R&B song that oozes groove. This great track was released on her first album entitled Frank. Amy Winehouse and Salaam Remi wrote the song. It was the album’s fourth single, released in August of 2004, ten months after the album was initially released in October of 2003. The single version released was a clean edit. Otherwise, you would not have heard this one played on the radio.

# 6 -Stronger Than Me

“Stronger Than Me” was the first single ever released by Amy Winehouse. The song also served as the opening track on her debut album entitled Frank. The song broke the top 100 in the U.K. but peaked at number 71. Amy looks much different in this video when compared to the look she would develop over the next couple of years. Her trademark long eyelashes are absent in this video. Yet, Amy’s vocals are spot-on as she delivered a performance that so easily depicted her tremendous talents that were soon to be discovered.

# 5 – Back To Black

We return to the Back to Black album as we settle into the second half of this top 10 Amy Winehouse songs list. This record has so many great songs that we could have easily filled up the top 10 list with just songs from the Back to Black album. The album’s excellent title track, “Back To Black,” is presented here. Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse wrote the song. “Back To Black” was released as the album’s third single. It was a top 10 hit in the UK, peaking at number seven. It hit number three in Austria and number one in Greece.

# 4 – Body & Soul – with Tony Bennett

As I was writing this piece, it began to get more complicated because while reviewing each song and watching these extraordinary performances, the loss of such an extraordinary human being seemed so unfair. Watching this video of Amy Winehouse performing with Tony Bennett hit home. As Amy stood alongside Tony Bennett, one could see how happy she seemed to be singing with such a legendary talent from an era that inspired her songwriting and vocal style.

This was a performance by two old souls with almost a sixty-year age difference that did not matter. I could not help but think that if Amy had surrounded herself more with artists like Tony Bennett and other accomplished, mature adult musicians, she might have made better choices or at least been better protected. You can get a sense of that from this video. Just a thought,….just a wish.

# 3 – Rehab

It seems fitting to go from our thoughts on Amy and her work with Tony Bennett to this next song. “Rehab” was a song many people saw and listened to as just a song, but in the end, it was far more. This was Amy’s statement that she didn’t want help. Most people heard this song for the first time and thought, “Wow, this is great.” We did, too. It’s such a brilliant piece of music. The vibe is so Stax / Motown Records sounding yet incredibly original, just like so much of Amy’s work. However, listening to the song “Rehab” since Amy passed away is an entirely different experience from when we listened to it when she was alive. “Rehab” was released on her Back to Black album.

# 2 -You Know I’m No Good

While “Rehab” was the first single released in the U.K. from the Back to Black album, the track “You Know I’m No Good” was the first single released in the U.S. The song hit number 18 on the UK Singles charts. However, it hit number one on the UK R&B charts. In the U.S., it did not fare well on the Hot 100 pop charts, but it did reach all the way to number two on the U.S. Billboard Adult Alternative Songs charts.

# 1 – Tears Dry on Their Own

The first time we ever heard this song, we instantly fell in love with it. It may not have been Amy Winehouse’s biggest hit, but what a killer song. This one was another great Amy Winehouse song that sounded like it was written in the mid-1960s. Full of soul in its rhythmic sense, what captivated us most was the soaring, excellent melody line and kicking chorus. This is as good as it gets in pop music. We will never get tired of listening to this fabulous song. And, of course, we will never tire of listening to Amy Winehouse. She lives on………..