Amy Winehouse seems to be everywhere these days with her hit “Rehab” off her Back to Black album. I saw her play on the MTV movie awards and now she’s on the cover of Rolling Stone. I admit I like the song; it’s catchy. But does anyone agree with me that it’s a little repetitive?

A little more than half way into “Rehab” I start to get bored. The same chorus, albeit a catchy one, keeps reappearing without much if any variation. The B section keeps coming back unchanged as well. To show this lack of development, here’s a quick sketch of the form of the song (CH = chorus, B = B section):

CH - B - CH - B - CH(1/2) - B - CH

Admittedly, when the chorus comes back that third time, it is cut in half. But my boredom begins exactly on the downbeat of this chorus, so by the time the song slightly alters this third chorus by shortening it, I have already started to lose interest. Even though it’s a great chorus, I think listeners start to get tired of something the third time they hear it; we crave variation as much as we crave unity, and there isn’t enough of it here.

So my questions is: what could she have done differently to improve on the structure of the song? In trying to answer this question, I thought it would be good to take a look at some girl groups from the 1960s since they are often cited as sources for Amy Winehouse’s music.

In doing some research on girl groups, I found an album published by Master Incontine in 2000 that is called Back 2 Back and includes music of the Shirelles and the Shangri-las. I had initially (perhaps naively) thought that Winehouse’s album title was some reference to the AC/DC album Back in Black, but it would appear instead that she has derived it from this recent girl-group compilation.

On listening to the tunes off the Back 2 Back Shirelles and Shangri-Las compilation, I noticed some interesting similarities between their music and that of Winehouse. Let us first compare the song “Leader of the Pack” by the Shangri-Las and the chorus of “Rehab.” Here are some excerpts as well as a mash-up to help make the similarities more clear:

		Amy Winehouse: “Rehab” (chorus)
		The Shangri-Las: “Leader of the Pack” (end refrain)
		Mash-up of Winehouse’s “Rehab” with “Leader of the Pack”

Do you hear how “Rehab” and “Leader of the Pack” both have a similar rhythmic pattern in the bass drum as well as a generally static harmony? As well, both songs are in C major, although the excerpt from “Leader of the Pack” that I have selected is from later in the song where it has gone through a “truck-driver’s gear shift” modulation to Db major. While the melody and hook in Winehouse’s song is unique it seems, she at least has certainly just lifted the basic feel of this old tune in the chorus.

There is another song on the Back 2 Back compilation of which “Rehab” is more than merely slighly reminiscent. Take a listen to the B section of “Rehab” along with this excerpt from “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” by the Shirelles (written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King). Again, I have included a mash-up to help make the relationship more clear.

		Amy Winehouse: “Rehab” (B section)
		The Shirelles: “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” (refrain)
		Mash-up of Winehouse’s “Rehab” and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”

Listen to how the snare in both songs plays exactly the same pattern. As well, the harmonic rhythm and chord progression in both songs are almost exactly the same: mediant to submediant to subdominant etc. (iii-vi-IV-etc.). In the Shirelles tune, the mediant is actually changed to an applied dominant of the submediant (V/III) by raising the third, but it’s basically the same. Again, as with “Leader of the Pack,” both “Rehab” and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” are also both in C major. The one noticeable difference is that in “Rehab,” the last chord in the progression is a bVI, which adds a nice touch of mixture. The altered subdominant chord (ivb) is common in girl-group music from this era, particularly as a final chord in a string of harmonies, so this bVI can basically be seen as a derivation of this common trick.

Did Winehouse structure “Rehab” as some sort of pastiche of “Leader of the Pack” and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” I think further credence to this theory is added as we know for sure that Winehouse was familiar with the song “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” since she played a cover of it on the Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason Soundtrack, although her version only seems to be available on the UK release and not on the American. Here is a quick snippet of that cover:

Amy Winehouse: cover of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” (verse)

The question remains, however, as to how “Rehab” might be improved upon to make the song a bit more interesting as far as the overall form is concerned. One thing to point out is that many of the hits from girl groups of the 1960s have similarly simple bipartite structures. However, those songs are almost always around 2:00 minutes long. “Rehab” is over three and a half minutes long, but without any extra musical material. It shouldn’t be a surprise, therefore, that I (and others I have talked to) get bored around that two-minute mark, which is right where songs from the era Winehouse is copying often end. Of course, modern radio hits are longer than two minutes, so “Rehab” has been stretched to conform to the norm. The extra length, though, is kind of wasted by just repeating parts over and over again.

A common technique to expand the length of a simple verse/chorus tune is to add a bridge. In the words of Robert Plant, “Where’s that confounded bridge?” Well, that’s exactly the question I’m asking myself when I listen to “Rehab.” Interestingly, “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” includes a bridge, something I wish Winehouse had appropriated as well:

The Shirelles: “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” (bridge)

Of course, there are other ways of adding variety to a song other than inserting a bridge. In “Rehab”, some attempt at variety is made as there is that shortened third chorus and the middle part of the final chorus includes an instrumentation that is similar to the B section, but I don’t think it’s enough. The changes are too small and not obvious enough. “Rehab” lacks any change to the constant back and forth of the catchy yet downplayed chorus and the more upbeat B section. The constant vocal is also tiresome after awhile.

So I think “Rehab” could easily be fixed, even without adding a bridge. Simply turn the third chorus into an instrumental solo and notch up the excitement level of the song to a high point. Then, when the third B section comes in, bring it back down; instead of just playing the B section straight, it would be the most stripped-down part of the song. The end result would be that the fourth chorus (which would only be the third sung chorus) would be that much more fresh, that much more exciting, and seem less as something heard too much before. You could even bring back some or all of the band in the second half of the third B section, which is another good trick, thereby splitting up the orchestration of the B section that is basically the same thing twice. In summary, the flawed form of “Rehab” could be “rehabilitated” as follows:

CH1 (same)
B2 (same)
CH2 (same)
B2 (same)
CH3 (solo instrumental texture with increased drive and intensity)
B3 (vocal returns, first half stripped way down, second half increased intensity)
CH4 (same, basically, pumped up a little more perhaps)

Of course, that’s just one idea. But something really desperately needs to happen in that third chorus, I think. Strangely enough, despite this repetitive form and the derivative nature of the material, “Rehab” won the 2006 Ivor Novello award in songwriting for “Best Contemporary Song.” I guess it goes to show that awards judges have different aesthetic values, perhaps based at least somewhat on popularity. Don’t get me wrong, I think “Rehab” has a great hook, great chorus, and great B section; I just think the song could be even better. And it’s sad to see a song get so close to being really timeless yet fall short. “Rehab” to me is one of those fun songs that everyone knows because it feels like you’ve heard it before (of course, now we know why). The song is extremely likeable when you hear parts of it played on TV or snippets float out of the car next to you. But I think if you sit down and try to enjoy the full song completely, you’ll find yourself feeling that it lacks a little something. I don’t know how many copies of the album “Rehab” has helped to move, but it seems to me the record company could have moved even more had they hired a more creative arranger. “Rehab” could use a rehab.