Wake Up Alone - Original Recording

Amy wrote this with British producer and composer Paul O'Duffy, who is best known for producing Swing Out Sister's Grammy-nominated multi-platinum debut album, It's Better to Travel and his film score work with John Barry. Amy spent a month in O'Duffy's North London studio working on tracks for what became the Back to Black album. This was the first song recorded during the sessions and the only tune that made it onto the album.

A one-take demo of the song recorded in March 2006 by O'Duffy later appeared on Winehouse's posthumous album, Lioness: Hidden Treasures. Long term Winehouse cohort Saleem Remi, who produced a number of tracks on her first two albums told NME: "Most of Amy's songs started with a guitar and a vocal and a basic beat, if there was any beat at all. So it was really about her being able to express herself lyrically and then find the chords she wanted to use and then get it arranged after."

During early sessions at O'Duffy's home studio in High Barnet, they worked on a cut inspired by Sarah Vaughan's 1972 song, "Deep In the Night." Winehouse didn't seem to be engaging with the tune until suddenly, she starting singing what became "Wake Up Alone" over the backing track. "She had a book, and would be drawing pictures of herself with love hearts and things, and you knew she was off in another world," O'Duffy recalled to Mojo magazine. "Then she started writing lyrics and at a certain point, she said, 'oh, I've got something.' In the normal process, a singer might share that lyrical or melodic idea. But it wasn't 'shall I just try this bit here?' She sang it in one take. I was like, 'Wow, where does this come from?'"