The five albums Amy Winehouse grew up with: “Made the most impact”
There’s nothing like a mother’s love to guide you through life, but also play the most formative role in shaping your musical influences. Amy Winehouse was lucky to know that more than most.
While the singer had many influences in her sights over the years, from jazz icons to indie sleaze starlets, above all else, there were five seminal albums from her childhood years that laid the strongest foundations for the force she would become, according to her mother, Janis. As the person who witnessed every high and low, she knew exactly what made Winehouse’s mind tick.
It also somewhat ironically put the idea to bed that the ‘Valerie’ singer never listened to anything made after 1967, even though this was a claim she liked to offer up. Although this may have become true at one point in time, the music of her childhood displayed a selection of everything from hip-hop stalwarts to 1990s rock behemoths, all of which guided her on the way.
But, of course, it should almost go without saying that the pillars of Winehouse’s sonic education began in the most classic of places, with the help of her parents’ listening habits. “Amy’s nan Cynthia and her father Mitchell were jazz nuts, so Amy heard anything from Ella Fitzgerald to Thelonious Monk from a young age,” Janis explained.
But within this, one woman reigned supreme. “Dinah Washington probably made the most impact,” she said, with the jazz singer’s 1957 album The Swingin’ Miss D being the certified frontrunner. For her own part, Janis asserted her influence through none other than Carole King’s Tapestry.
Noting that it was one of the mother and daughter’s shared favourites, she said: “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.”
As for any child of the ‘80s and ‘90s, the pop years then ensued, with a mix of both Michael Jackson and Salt N Pepa leading the way. According to her mother, the former’s Bad made Winehouse “crazy” for “the songs; the dancing; everything about him,” while the latter’s Very Necessary became pivotal as she and her friend would make up dance routines to the songs.
Perhaps surprisingly to some, in reference to Salt N Pepa, Janis admitted: “American hip-hop remained an enduring influence on Amy’s music,” but this was the mark of a truly transportative soul who could master everything from jazz standards to pop as if it were child’s play.
Lastly, there came a 1995 alternative rock album which not only made the world sit up and listen but also changed the course of Winehouse’s life forever. When her father bought her Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill for Christmas, the future singer became “obsessed”, her mother said. Going on to perform ‘Ironic’ at a school concert, “The audience were left speechless,” she recalled.
And the rest, they say, is history. You can throw out all the examples of jazz and soul that you like in trying to claim what inspired Winehouse, but really, her natural surroundings and a solid musical imprint were enough to set this blazing talent on her way. Whether it’s Salt N Pepa, Morissette, or her own mother, everyone can be proud of having a role in creating that.
