It’s a rare thing to hear a ghost in high definition. When the posthumous album Lioness: Hidden Treasures dropped in late 2011, just months after Amy Winehouse passed away in her Camden home, the world was looking for a goodbye. We got it, but it wasn't exactly what we expected. Among the covers of "Our Day Will Come" and the raw demos of "Between the Cheats," there was a specific gravity to the tracks that felt like a time machine. People often get the timeline confused, but My Day Will Come Amy Winehouse isn't just a song title; it's a reflection of a specific, brief window where she was just a girl from North London with a massive voice and a book of lyrics she hadn't yet turned into the armor of Back to Black.
Honestly, listening to her early work is painful now. You can hear the optimism. It’s weird, right? We associate Amy with the beehive, the winged eyeliner, and the tragic "Rehab" era, but the roots of her career were planted in a much jazzier, brighter soil.
The track "Our Day Will Come"—which is often what people are actually searching for when they type "My Day Will Come Amy Winehouse"—is a cover of the 1963 classic by Ruby & the Romantics. It’s a song about patience. It’s about the belief that love wins eventually. Hearing Amy sing those lines back in 2002 during the Frank sessions feels like an alternate reality where things turned out differently. Producers Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson, the architects of her sound, have both spoken about how these early recordings captured a "pure" Amy. She wasn't a tabloid fixture yet. She was just a jazz head who wanted to sound like Sarah Vaughan.
The Raw Origin of the Recording
Amy recorded this specific rendition during the sessions for her debut album, Frank. If you listen closely to the production, it has that mid-tempo, reggae-tinged groove that Salaam Remi was perfecting at the time. It’s light. It’s airy. It’s the polar opposite of the heavy, Phil Spector-inspired wall of sound that defined her later work.
People forget how young she was.
Eighteen. Nineteen.
She was a teenager when she laid down some of these vocals. When you look at the tracklist of Lioness, "Our Day Will Come" stands out because it doesn't sound like a posthumous "scrap." It sounds finished. It sounds intentional. It’s one of the few tracks that didn't feel like a studio-assembled Frankenstein monster.
There’s a specific nuance in her phrasing on the line "No one can tell me that I'm too young to know." In 1963, that line was about teenage puppy love. When Amy sang it, it felt like a manifesto. She was fighting against an industry that wanted to mold her into a pop star, and she was digging her heels into the dirt, insisting on being a jazz singer.
Why the Posthumous Release Sparked So Much Debate
Posthumous albums are tricky business. They always have been. From Hendrix to 2pac, the ethics of releasing unfinished work or outtakes are murky at best. When Lioness: Hidden Treasures came out, the reception was... mixed. Some critics felt it was a cash grab. Others, like me, felt it was a necessary piece of the puzzle to understand her evolution.
The song "Our Day Will Come" was the lead single for a reason.
It was safe.
It was melodic.
It showed the Amy that people loved—the one with the flawless pitch and the effortless cool—without the grit and the sorrow of her later years. But there’s a bittersweet irony to it. By the time the world actually heard "Our Day Will Come," her day had already come and gone. The song’s message of a bright future felt like a gut punch to fans who were still mourning the loss of a generational talent at just 27 years old.
Island Records and her estate had a lot of pressure on them. Salaam Remi, who was essentially Amy’s musical soulmate, was the one who pulled the tracks together. He’s gone on record saying that if Amy wasn't happy with a take, he wouldn't have released it. He claimed these were performances she was proud of, even if they didn't make the cut for Frank or Back to Black.
The Technical Brilliance of the Track
We need to talk about her voice.
It wasn't just the tone. It was the timing.
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Amy Winehouse had this incredible ability to sing "behind the beat." It’s a classic jazz technique where you delay the start of a phrase just a fraction of a second, creating a sense of relaxation and soul. In the My Day Will Come Amy Winehouse sessions, you hear her playing with the melody like a cat with a ball of yarn. She never sings the same line the same way twice.
- The opening "Ooh" is breathy and suggests a 1960s girl group aesthetic.
- The mid-song ad-libs show her hip-hop influences (she grew up on Salt-N-Pepa and Beastie Boys, after all).
- The final refrain is almost hypnotic, stripping away the instrumentation until it's just her and the rhythm.
Compare this to the 1963 original. Ruby Nash sang it straight. It was a perfect, polished pop gem. Amy took that gem and scuffed it up. she added a swagger that turned a hopeful ballad into a cool, late-night anthem. It’s the difference between a high school prom and a smoky underground club in Soho.
Misconceptions About the Lyrics and Meaning
There is a persistent rumor online that Amy wrote a song called "My Day Will Come" specifically about her struggles with fame or her relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil. That’s factually incorrect.
As mentioned, it's a cover.
However, the reason the misconception persists is that Amy had a way of "owning" every song she touched. When she sang "Valerie" (originally by The Zutons), most people thought it was her song. When she sang "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," she made Carole King’s classic sound like it was written in 2008 in a North London flat.
The "My Day Will Come" sentiment appears in her notebooks, though. Fans who visited the "Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait" exhibit at the Jewish Museum London saw her diaries and lists. She was constantly writing goals. She was incredibly ambitious in a quiet, focused way. She wanted to be respected by the greats. She wanted to be mention in the same breath as Dinah Washington.
So, when we listen to this track now, we aren't just hearing a cover. We are hearing a mission statement from a girl who hadn't yet been crushed by the weight of the world's expectations.
The Impact of the Music Video
If you haven't seen the music video for "Our Day Will Come," you should. It’s a montage. It’s a highlight reel of her life, ranging from home videos of her as a child to clips of her performing at Glastonbury.
It’s heartbreaking.
The video reinforces the idea of "My Day Will Come" as a retrospective. It frames her entire life as a journey toward a peak she eventually reached, but couldn't stay on for long. It uses the song's upbeat rhythm to contrast with the visual reality that she is no longer here. That’s a powerful, if manipulative, piece of marketing. It worked, though. The song charted well internationally, reaching the top 30 in the UK and becoming a staple on adult contemporary radio.
Understanding the "Lioness" Context
To really get what happened with My Day Will Come Amy Winehouse, you have to look at the album it sits on. Lioness: Hidden Treasures wasn't a "new" album. It was a compilation of:
- Alternate versions of existing hits (like the bossa nova version of "Girl From Ipanema").
- Demos that were never meant for release.
- The final recordings she made, including the duet with Tony Bennett, "Body and Soul."
"Our Day Will Come" is the bridge between her two worlds. It has the jazz sensibilities of her debut and the refined vocal control she developed during the Back to Black era. It is arguably the most "complete" feeling track on the entire posthumous record.
How to Appreciate Her Discography Today
If you’re coming to Amy’s music through this specific song, you’re seeing the "light" side of her genius. To get the full picture, you have to go deeper than the hits.
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Start with Frank. It is a masterpiece of modern jazz-pop. It’s snarky, it’s funny, and it’s musically complex. Then, move to Back to Black, but listen to the B-sides. Tracks like "Love is a Losing Game" (the original demo) show the raw nerves that made her so relatable.
Amy wasn't a victim. She was a musician.
That’s the most important thing to remember. She was a perfectionist who spent hours in the booth getting a single syllable right. When we talk about "My Day Will Come," we should talk about it as a testament to her work ethic and her encyclopedic knowledge of music history. She knew the 1960s catalog inside and out. She wasn't just singing a song; she was paying homage to the artists who paved the way for her.
What to Do Next to Honor Her Legacy
If you want to dive deeper into the reality of Amy's life and the making of her music, there are a few specific things worth your time.
First, watch the 2015 documentary Amy by Asif Kapadia. It uses a lot of the same archival footage seen in the "Our Day Will Come" video but provides the brutal, honest context of her rise and fall. It’s hard to watch, but it’s the most accurate portrayal of her career.
Second, check out the Amy Winehouse Foundation. It was set up by her family to help young people struggling with addiction and to support youth through music. It’s a way to see her "day" continue to happen in a positive way for others.
Finally, go back and listen to the original Ruby & the Romantics version of the song. Then listen to Amy’s. Notice the differences. Notice how she changed the chords slightly, how she swung the rhythm. That is where the real "expert" knowledge lies—in the technicality of her craft.
Amy Winehouse didn't just sing songs; she lived them. Even the ones she didn't write herself. "Our Day Will Come" remains a haunting reminder that for a brief moment, everything seemed possible for the girl from Southgate.
- Listen to the "Lioness: Hidden Treasures" version on a high-quality audio system to catch the subtle percussion layers added by Salaam Remi.
- Compare the vocal takes between "Our Day Will Come" and "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" to see how her voice aged and deepened between 2002 and 2011.
- Read "Amy, My Daughter" by Mitch Winehouse if you want the family’s perspective on the recording of the posthumous material, though keep in mind it is a highly personal and sometimes biased account.
- Explore the jazz standards she frequently cited as influences, specifically those by Dinah Washington and Thelonious Monk, to understand the DNA of her phrasing.