Frank

Her first album was released by Island Records in the UK on 20 October 2003, after production over 2002 and 2003. Salaam Remi produced most of it, with Commissioner Gordon, Jimmy Hogarth and Matt Rowe also credited. Winehouse co-wrote every song except two covers. The title points at the frankness of her lyrics and partly at Frank Sinatra, as Remi wrote in the liner notes to Lioness: Hidden Treasures. The session players on Remi's tracks included Vincent Henry on saxophones and Bruce Purse on trumpet, and co-writer Felix Howard recalled that she arrived at their first session in jeans with "I Love Sinatra" embroidered on the seat.

Beccy Lindon of the Guardian, reviewing it in 2003, heard a sound somewhere between Nina Simone and Erykah Badu, picked out Take the Box as the standout and said October Song forged uplifting jazz out of the death of a pet canary. In 2007, reviewing the US release for Pitchfork, Douglas Wolk said the best songs were co-written with Remi, thought the chorus of October Song lifted its melody from Lullaby of Birdland, and singled out the soul loop under In My Bed and the Soul II Soul beat that arrives halfway through You Sent Me Flying. In the US version Know You Now and Moody's Mood for Love were moved to the end as hidden tracks. Metacritic gives it an average of 78 from 11 reviews, and it is in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

It entered the UK chart at number 60 and rose to 13 in late January 2004. After her death it re-entered at number five and then reached a new peak of three. It has sold over a million copies in the UK. In the US it debuted at 61 on the Billboard 200 in 2007 and peaked at 33 in August 2011. Of its first four singles, In My Bed and You Sent Me Flying together did best, at number 60. A deluxe edition with an 18-track bonus disc of rare tracks, remixes, B-sides and live performances came out in May 2008, and a vinyl reissue followed on 31 July 2015.