Week Twelve: Amy Winehouse - "Our Day Will Come" - Lioness: Hidden Treasures

There are a plethora of reasons as to why I chose Amy Winehouse for my week twelve artist.  First and foremost, the world will be celebrating the one-year anniversary of her passing on Monday, July 23rd.  Secondly, I just finished reading the book that was penned by her father, Mitch Winehouse, called Amy, My Daughter, which was a very touching and heartwarming account of her life.  Finally, Elvis week segues nicely into Amy week since she was a fan of his, especially since Blake was a fan of his.  In fact, I read somewhere that the lightning bolt tattoo on her right inner wrist was her tribute to Elvis.  The lightning bolt was the symbol used for his TCB trademark.  However, I believe that Amy got that tattoo long before she met the Elvis-obsessed Blake; so it could have been more of an "afterthought" explanation for her because I also read somewhere else that the lightning bolt was symbolic of her "harsher" side and the corresponding feather, on the other inner wrist area, was symbolic of her "softer" side:

Shortly after her passing, when the web and news broadcasts blew up with reports about Amy, my father pointed out to me that Amy and I possessed many striking similarities.  She was very close to both her father and her paternal grandmother.  I am very close to my father and was very close to my paternal grandmother.  She mentored Dionne Bromfield; I mentor a young African-American girl.  She was of Russian ancestry; I am of Russian ancestry.  She loved 1960s Girl Groups; I love 1960s Girl Groups.  She was in an abusive relationship that destroyed her; I was in an abusive relationship that nearly destroyed me.  Her drink of choice was Vodka; my drink of choice was Vodka.  Where our similarities clearly end is that at the age she passed away, I was already a year into my sobriety.

I will not claim to have been a huge Amy fan while she was alive.  I always appreciated the unique nature of her work, and I never made fun of her for her issues.  Why would I?  I know what a struggle it was for her to battle her demons - I cannot imagine having to fight them while being scrutinized by the public eye.  I also know that you eventually have to put all that negativity behind you, and as long as she was expected to continue to sing about Blake and all of that heartbreak, she did not have a fighting chance.

I love her cover of "Our Day Will Come" which was originally by Ruby and the Romantics.  I just realized the other day that this song is playing very faintly while they are in the bowling alley the first time in Grease 2, while they are returning the shoes and right before Stephanie kisses Michael as he is coming through the entrance.  I know that Amy was a huge fan of the Grease films, so I wonder if that had any impact on her choice to cover this song.

 Our day will come (Our day will come)
And we'll have everything
We'll share the joy
Falling in love can bring

No one can tell me
That I'm too young to know
I love you so
And you love me

Our day will come (Our day will come)
If we just wait a while
No tears for us
Think love and wear a smile

Our dreams have magic

Because we'll always stay
In love this way
Our day will come

[Instrumental break]

Our dreams have magic

Because we'll always stay
In love this way

Our day will come

Our day will come

Our day will come

Our day....will come

Our day will come