We hardly knew her

Amy Winehouse: A talented, tortured soul.

When Amy Winehouse burst onto the music scene in 2006 we weren't paying attention, even though her sophomore album Back to Black possessed just the sort of kinetic energy and musical alchemy that should have won us over.

But we couldn't see the talent for the tabloid headlines. If you believed what was being written -- and much of it apparently was true --Winehouse was more than a trainwreck waiting to happen; she rarely stayed on the tracks at all.

Now that she's gone -- the newest member of the ghoulish 27 Club -- perhaps the most amazing detail to consider is that despite the remarkable commercial and critical success of Back to Black she never made another album. All that talent and just two albums in eight years.

Of the dozens and dozens of videos online, we recommend this clip of "Valerie" which captures the raw beauty of Winehouse's voice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6JRttxTBC8&feature=player_embedded

The opening words to "He Can Only Hold Her" from Back to Black provide a haunting farewell to an artist we never really knew:

He can only hold her for so long
The lights are on, but no one's home
She's so vacant, her soul is taken