How large will her legacy loom?

Pivotal in her time, Winehouse’s talents ran rich in potential

July 31, 2011|By Sarah Rodman, Globe Staff

Fans have left flowers and tributes outside Winehouses home in London,… (SANG TAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS )

Predictably in the wake of her death on July 23, of still unexplained causes, Amy Winehouse’s music has returned to the Billboard charts.

The troubled British soul star’s first album, 2003’s “Frank,’’ returned to the Top 200 albums chart at No. 57. Her better known sophomore release, 2006’s “Back to Black,’’ which spawned the incongruously jaunty hit “Rehab,’’ with its famously defiant “No, no, no,’’ re-entered the Top 10 at No. 9. “Rehab’’ itself hit No. 46 on the digital songs chart.

So the common post-mortem sales bump means that at the very least, more people will get to know the sometimes buoyant, sometimes brooding music that Winehouse loved to make.

Otherwise, is this anything other than an unremittingly dark tale? And was anyone who was familiar with Winehouse’s longtime struggles with substance abuse shocked by her death?

For many, there was surely real anger over the wasted potential. But once that recedes, and the veil of mourning is lifted, the question arises: What might Winehouse’s enduring legacy be?

It has been widely noted that she has joined a notorious club of other musicians who died at the far-too-young age of 27 after battling similar demons. Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died in 1970, Jim Morrison of the Doors in 1971, and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana in 1994. Will Winehouse’s myth loom as large?

Ultimately, the answer lies in the mythmaking that is already underway. Will there be posthumous releases, biographies, films?

Given the degree to which Winehouse was already embroiled in her addictions at the height of her fame, it’s unlikely she will be assured an automatic place on the Mount Rushmore of doomed rock stars. Her downward trajectory, caught in the flashbulbs of our voracious tabloid media culture, was a very steep pitch. And because of that, her musical output was small and consistently dwarfed by the mess in her life.

Without a doubt, the British singer was gifted with a rich, soulful voice that expressed her woundedness with singularity and sharp honesty. Her personal troubles were not the only reasons she would draw comparisons to Billie Holiday.

She was a pivotal figure in her brief time. As a songwriter, and with the help of producer Mark Ronson and the expertise of Sharon Jones’s band, the Dap-Kings, at her disposal, Winehouse fused vintage and modern R&B sounds, with nods to Motown and Lauryn Hill. She developed a look - all beehives and tattoos, taking the supper club to the nightclub - that put her at the forefront of a British retro-soul trend that included countrywomen such as Duffy, Estelle, and the now phenomenally successful Adele, who cites Winehouse as an inspiration. (And let us all give thanks to Dusty Springfield while we’re at it.)