Not much of what Amy Winehouse did in music was original; that’s a fact. But it’s also an acceptable fact—if we endeavoured to rid the whole business of those who reinvented previously executed tropes, we wouldn’t be left with very much, if anything at all. With Winehouse, many of her songs didn’t just borrow from other genres; they paid homage in the most effortless way possible.
When soon-to-be beehived singer first came onto the scene in 2003, she had that endearing early 2000s authenticity that appeared popular at the time, but with a more classic twist: instead of churning out the same types of pop music her peers were doing, she took her appreciation for rhythm and jazz music and created magic.
While her debut LP Frank still has many songs that hold up today, it was her 2006 release, Back to Black, which solidified her status as one of the most exciting figures in the musical landscape. In fact, many of the songs possess a unique ability to be heard when they’re not even playing, largely because of the vivid sonic tapestry she placed at the fore of each of her hits.
From a personal standpoint, most of the songs on Back to Black were written by Winehouse during a particularly rough period in her life. Her relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil had come to an end due to his pursuit of his previous girlfriend, and although they would later reunite romantically, Winehouse felt very certain at the time about her ability to move on and recognise his negative impact on her.
This was particularly reflected in ‘Tears Dry On Their Own’, which Winehouse wrote as a way of telling herself everything was going to be fine. As she put it in 2006: “[This is] about the breakup with Blake, my ex. Most of these songs are about him.”
Detailing further, she added: “I shouldn’t have been in a relationship with him because he was already involved with someone else a bit too close to home. The song is about when we split up and saying to myself: ‘Yes, you’re sad but you’ll get over it.’ And I did.”
Unlike the songs produced by Mark Ronson, ‘Tears Dry On Their Own’ was purposefully slower in tempo, something that producer Salaam Remi was keen on exploring with her sound at the time. In fact, as they envisioned how the track would play out, they were listening to backing tracks of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s ‘Aint No Mountain High Enough’, when inspiration struck.
Discussing the pivotal moment with Mojo, Remi explained: “I was sitting there, listening to it and I was telling Amy, ‘Tears Dry’ could [work over] that. She just could not hear it.” Continuing, he explained how he had “to sing it pretty much to get her to figure it out” but she was “still frustrated”. He added: “But, it was just really the whole idea of her singing very sad lyrics against an encouraging backing track.”
After a while, however, she recognised “that juxtaposition,” Remi explained, the kind that “gave it another spark”. Drawing from the hit Motown song, ‘Tears Dry On Their Own’ not only became one of Winehouse’s more personal compositions but adopted a certain soulfulness that gave it its endearing shelf-life.
