YOUR SUMMER PLAYLIST: DUFFY

ROCKFERRY
A&M Records

If Amy Winehouse were blonde (well, she was for a millisecond) and not on drugs, nor married to a felon, nor tatted up, you’d have new UK-sensation Duffy. However, unlike Winehouse, the petite, self-trained singer grew up far from the glamour of London in a small coastal town in Wales. Raised far from any source of current music, Duffy, born Aimee Anne Duffy, found her first sources of inspiration from her father’s VHS tapes of the ‘60’s TV show Ready, Steady, Go! The episodes featured performances by The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Sandie Shaw, and Millie, an era that influenced the now 23-year-old to write her own material.

Her debut album Rockferry has already made a huge splash in the UK and U.S., thanks to its hit single, “Mercy”, which is largely responsible for those Dusty Springfield comparisons. The album is mostly comprised of songs she wrote as a teen, only Duffy didn’t have to go to rehab to have her music see the light of day.—Nadine Cheung