The first time I heard her sing, I thought the radio was playing a Dinah Washington record. But there was something else in that voice -- Ertha Kitt maybe? -- and blow me down, it was a Jewish girl from England.

Then came the tabloid stories about her defiant drinking and drug use, at the same time as she climbed to the top of the charts with a song about refusing to go to rehab.

Tonight I am sad that this light went out so soon, in the same way that I was sad when Jimi and…