Winehouse, Ronson Snipe Over 'Back to Black' Credit

Amy Winehouse and producer Mark Ronson — who recently announced that they'd be covering "It's My Party" for an upcoming Quincy Jones tribute disc, making for Winehouse's first new recording since 2007 — have had a somewhat less encouraging last few days. First, Ronson appeared on Later ... with Jools Holland on Friday, and downplayed Winehouse's contributions her own hit album, Back to Black, which he produced: "Amy Winehouse would come to me with just a song and an acoustic guitar, and then kind of you dream up the rhythm arrangement and track around it and you help arrange all sorts of things," Ronson said. Winehouse, who caught wind of Ronson's remarks, then lashed out at the producer on Twitter, writing: "Ronson you're dead to me; one album I write an you take half the credit- make a career out of it? Don't think so BRUV."

Ronson was quick to make nice, telling the BBC, "I've always been really candid about saying that Amy is the reason I am on the map. If it wasn't for the success of Back To Black, no one would have cared too much about [my album] Version." Winehouse responded by tweeting, "Ronson I love you; that make it better? you knoww I love you- it's a jew thingz x whup rza." Winehouse has promised that she and Ronson will deliver a new album by January, but Ronson has said that they haven't begun recording yet.

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

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