On this day in 1983, a person was born.
Back to Black, her second and final studio album, was the best-selling album of all time.
The late singer-songwriter’s electric guitar chops, which can be seen in the 2004 Fender Stratocaster promo above, are less well-known than her knockout vocals andsoulful lyrics.
She got her own guitar in her early teens, after playing her brother’s guitar. “I just played every day,” he says. It was what I wanted to do.
RECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU…
Her course on the instrument was influenced by James Taylor, Carole King, hip-hop and traditional jazz.
She says it’s easy to teach yourself guitar if you have a love for it. “If you learn how to play the guitar off someone else, you just kind of learn to play it the same way they do, you know what I mean?” I can say that I am still a distinctive guitarist, even though I am not an adequate one. I have a different sound.
At a 2003 taping of Later… with Jools Holland, a performance of Stronger Than Me was made famous by Amy Winehouse, who wore a Strat.
Her 2004 performance of Take The Box at Wembley Arena, in which she brings the massive crowd, which had gathered to celebrate the Strat’s 50th birthday, to an absolute standstill, is also essential viewing.
“When I’m onstage and I’ve got a guitar, I feel like no one can touch me,” the singer says in the promo.