Amy Winehouse’s favourite song of all time
Through a combination of her distinctive, dynamic voice and jazz-inspired instrumentals, Amy Winehouse remains the mind behind many people’s favourite songs. From the dark and dramatic ‘Back to Black’ to the ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’-inspired epic ‘Tears Dry on Their Own’, each song she penned was infused with her personality and sonic flair, endearing her to audiences worldwide.
In her youth, Winehouse was inspired by Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and the musicians surrounding her. Her family was full of jazz – her grandmother was a singer, her uncles were jazz musicians, and her parents loved music. While her dad sang Frank Sinatra to her, her mother favoured Carole King, providing an early musical influence which would persist throughout the singer’s lifetime.
Carole King’s second studio album, Tapestry, was one of her mother’s favourite records when Winehouse was growing up. It quickly became one of the singer’s favourites too. “I used to play it in the car with her and at home,” Janis Winehouse recalled to Classic Album Sundays, “Amy always looked up to Carole King as one of the great American songwriters, and I’m sure she inspired Amy to learn her craft. When I saw the Carole King musical Beautiful recently, I cried. It brought back so many memories.”
Winehouse herself also acknowledged her and her mother’s love of King in interviews – in 2004, she spoke with M magazine, via PRS, about her early influences, sharing, “My mum loved Carole King’s Tapestry, that was always in the house.” Though she may have come to take more inspiration from her jazz roots and contemporaries, Winehouse’s admiration for King was just as enduring.
Winehouse once paid homage to King’s early influence on her with a cover of another of her songs, the 1960 track ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’, written by King and Gerry Goffin. Her take on the song was included in the posthumous compilation Lioness: Hidden Treasures in 2011.
Tapestry spawned two lengthy number ones for King with ‘It’s Too Late’ and ‘I Feel the Earth Move’, but it was ‘So Far Away’ that Winehouse seemed most taken with. The track has often been referred to as her favourite song, and a rendition of it was played in the final moments of her private funeral following her death in 2011.
The soft piano track features King alongside James Taylor on guitar. The intimate track seems to chart King’s experience of love and fame – “Traveling around sure gets me down and lonely,” she sings in one verse. The gorgeous chorus declares, “But you’re so far away, doesn’t anybody stay in one place any more?” over subdued piano and gentle guitars. It’s a beautiful track – it’s not difficult to see why it took the title for Winehouse’s favourite.
Listen to ‘So Far Away’ by Carole King below.
