Mark Ronson's Back To Black Session

'Back To Black' was released on 27th October 2006 by Island Records; the Grammy Winning album was heavily influenced by the pop and soul music of the 1960s. In this video, we hear from Mark Ronson on how the first recoding sessions went, and he explains how each part of the song took shape and developed. Ronson wrote the parts for Back To Black the night after he met Amy Winehouse, explaining: 

"I just thought, 'Let's talk about music, see what she likes.' She said she liked to go out to bars and clubs and play snooker with her boyfriend and listen to the Shangri-Las. So she played me some of those records ... I told her that I had nothing to play her right now but if she [lets] me work on something overnight she could come back tomorrow. So I came up with this little piano riff, which became the verse chords to 'Back to Black.' Behind it I just put a kick drum and a tambourine and tons of reverb."

He plays back that original ProTools session, explaining how his lack of skills with a drum kit formed a DIY version of the pattern he wanted - and explains how Winehouse wrote the lyrics in one hour having heard his backing track. The episode is taken from BBC Maestro and the full course is available here: https://www.bbcmaestro.com/

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