The Rolling Stones Are Paying Tribute to Late Jewish Musician Amy Winehouse

The Rolling Stones are paying tribute to the late, great Amy Winehouse.

The iconic rock band released their 25th studio album, “Foreign Tongues,” earlier this month, and among the 14 tracks featuring their signature bluesy sound is a familiar tune: a cover of “You Know I’m No Good” by fellow British music legend Amy Winehouse.

The Rolling Stones have been longtime fans and supporters of the gone-too-soon Jewish visionary. In fact, Winehouse joined them on stage in 2007 at the Isle of Wight festival in England, where they performed a cover of “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” by the Temptations. 

It was a memorable moment that almost didn’t happen, the festival organizer revealed — the Stones were immediately on board with the collaboration, but Winehouse, who was only 23 at the time, said she was too nervous and needed to be convinced. The audience didn’t take much convincing that night, as their rapturous applause could be heard a few moments after she took the stage mid-song. 

Winehouse was perhaps closest to Stones’ guitarist Ronnie Wood. He supported her through her well-documented struggle with alcoholism, recalling once saying to her, “Look, everyone knows you’ve got vodka in the water bottle. Get it together and get on stage.” 

“I’m sad because she didn’t do her full span,” Wood added, referring to her tragic death from alcohol poisoning in 2011 at age 27. 

“Always thought that Amy was a sad story in many ways, but she was one of the best to come out of England, and probably had so much more potential,” fellow bandmate Keith Richards recently said of Winehouse. 

When it came to their new album, the band knew they wanted to include a cover song, preferably of a female artist. They quickly landed on Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good,” which was a single on her second studio album, “Back to Black,” and one of her most beloved hits. 

“I always liked that song,” frontman Mick Jagger explained. “I could have written it, you know what I mean? Almost. I felt that I could have written that song, because it’s like a minor-key harmonica lead. I just copied the horn lead and played it on harmonica, so it felt very organic.”

The result is infectious. While nothing can compare to Winehouse’s moody, sultry original, the Stones’ cover is bright and energetic, a perfect pick-me-up in the second half of the record.

Though her active recording career was cut short, Amy Winehouse left an indelible mark on music history. Releasing just two albums, Winehouse won five Grammy awards and broke all expectations of what a young female artist could look and sound like. 

For Jewish listeners especially, she offered a new kind of representation — edgy, a little dangerous and cool. 

Winehouse was born into an Ashkenazi Jewish family in London where Jewish identity and culture ran deep. She kvetched about having to go to Hebrew school, attended weekly Shabbat dinners and loved the ways in which the religion values time spent with family, once saying, “Being Jewish to me is about being together as a real family. It’s not about lighting candles and saying a ‘brocha’ (blessing).”

British Jewish writer Hannah Radley once wrote in Hey Alma, “Amy ushered in this whole new world for me that made Judaism seem, like, really, really cool.” 

Winehouse herself understood that she was unique, but that she could also be someone that others, especially girls, could relate to. “It’s important for me to represent myself,” she once said. “I was never part of a scene where I was a leader of a bunch of Jewish girls who sung jazz. I don’t know anyone like myself.” 

“But I know if I’m honest about myself, and honest about my time and what I do in my life, I know there’s girls that will hear that in my album and be like, yeah, I felt that… That’s what I’m here for.”

Her music clearly spoke to millions of listeners around the world, including one of the most famous rock bands of all time, the Rolling Stones. Hearing them pay tribute to her music 15 years after her death proves that, over and over, Amy Winehouse’s memory has been a musical blessing.