Rehab Lyrics

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Genius Annotation

“Rehab,” the leading single off of Back To Black, arguably put Winehouse on the international map. The song is a hauntingly ironic, upbeat tune where Winehouse refuses to go to a rehabilitation centre to help manage her drug and alcohol problem.

Despite her resistance against any form of professional rehabilitation, she ended up checking into a rehab centre in early 2008, leaving just in time for the 50th Grammy Awards where she would take home a Grammy for Song Of The Year, Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Record Of The Year, each for “Rehab.”

Winehouse’s infamous reaction to winning Record Of The Year

While the song brought her much success, its message was questioned by listeners who were concerned for Winehouse’s health and addiction problems in real life. Almost four years after her tragic death, Winehouse’s former manager sat down with The Guardian in June 2015 and revealed how “Rehab,” specifically, had left a mark on him and those close to Winehouse, saying:

I knew at some point she’d write a really big hit, and it was ironic that the hit she wrote was, verbatim, that day, and it was mocking me. Not only was I not her manager any more, but she’d written this huge hit that’s undeniably brilliant, that was a complete mockery of our friendship and of what she needed. And the whole world’s dancing along to it, and really she was writing about a decision that five years later would result in her being dead. It was really fucked up. […] I can’t really listen to Amy any more, unfortunately. If I walk into a shop and she’s playing, I always get a little sense of pride and warmth, but I can’t put it on.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

Translations
Genius Answer
What did Amy Winehouse say about "Rehab"?
Genius Answer

During a January 2019 interview with Howard Stern, producer and co-writer Mark Ronson discussed the studio session with Winehouse that spawned “Rehab,” saying:

It was pretty crazy – we wrote this down on Mercer Street, like, she was in New York, we had just met the day before. […] [“Rehab”] was one – she had written a lot of songs before we got to New York – but, we were walking down the street in SoHo [and] she wanted to go get a shirt, it was her boyfriend’s birthday, and we were catching up, getting to know each other, and she was like, “I used to be kinda fucked up and there was this time where I was like drinking a lot and my family and my manager and all these people came over to my house and they tried to make me go to rehab and I was like, ‘Pfft, no, no, no!’” […] and I was like, “I hate writing songs around a gimmick, but there’s something catchy about what you just said. You wanna just go back to the studio and try and turn that into a song?” […] We went back to the studio, she was always so fast, the way she wrote, she comes back in like thirty minutes and she’s like, “I got this song!”

A few years earlier in 2011 while speaking with Rolling Stone, “Rehab” drummer Ahmir Thompson summed the song up as:

One of the best recordings ever. [Winehouse]’s coming from Fifties and Sixties doo-wop, and they nailed that sound exactly.

What has the media said about the song?
Genius Answer

In 2018, NPR ranked this as the #23 greatest song by a female or nonbinary artist in the 21st century, saying:

As an anti-temperance anthem, the lead single from Amy Winehouse’s sophomore smash, Back to Black, was timed perfectly to a certain post-9/11, pre-financial crisis hedonism that asserted itself in the first years of the millennium. But it was no novelty: Powered by crackerjack backing outfit the Dap-Kings, a space alien could have tuned in to its crisp handclaps, big-bottomed baritone sax and taut, irrepressible groove and known that we had a hit on our hands — and one that masterfully deployed elements that dated back to when hits were invented, without ever sounding stale. Tying it all together with a black velvet ribbon, of course, is the diva’s own fluid, slinky instrument, chewing with gusto on her toss-the-TV-out-the-window-level ode to appetites.

Is there an official lyric video?
Credits
Produced By
First Assistant Director
Video Director
Mixing Engineer
Assistant Mixing Engineer
Recording Engineer
Orchestral Arrangements
Assistant Recording Engineer
Orchestra Leader
Orchestra Contractor
Bass Guitar
Percussion
Tenor Trombone
Recorded At
Dapking Studios, New York / Metropolis Studios, London / Chung King Studios, New York
Release Date
October 23, 2006
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