Songfacts®:

• Like the other songs on the Back to Black album, this was written during a difficult time in Winehouse's life. Her then boyfriend Blake Fielder-Civil had abandoned her to return to his previous girlfriend, leaving Amy devastated. After the songs were written he returned and they got married in 2007. However, at the time Winehouse was emotionally fragile but she chose to use her pain as raw material for her songs, which she found to be a healing experience. She explained to Mojo Magazine January 2008: "I'm not frightened of appearing vulnerable. I write songs about stuff that I can't really get past emotionally-and then I feel better."
• This was co-written by Mark Ronson, the producer of Back to Black. Ronson also co-wrote the title track and "You Know I'm No Good" on the album. Winehouse collaborated a few months later with Ronson on a cover of the Zutons song "Valerie" for his Version album. When it was released as a single it reached #2 on the UK chart, higher than any of the singles released from Back to Black.
• When the English singer-songwriter George Michael was interviewed on the BBC Radio show Desert Island Discs, he chose this as the piece of music he would most like to have if he was stranded on a desert island.
• This won the 2008 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically And Lyrically. However the troubled singer failed to arrive in time to collect her gong, leaving her embarrassed father Mitch to accept it on her behalf.
• This was the first song mixed for Back to Black. Ronson recalled to Mojo magazine June 2010 that he was nervous regarding how Winehouse would react. Said Ronson: "She came to mixing on the first day at Metropolis studios in London. The first song we were mixing was Love is a Losing Game. She had her head down on the mixing board, so I couldn't gauge her reaction. I'm freaking out, thinking, If she doesn't like it, we're pretty f---ed. At the end of it she looks up and walks over, extends her arms and gives me a huge hug. 'I love it. Just take the harp off after the second verse. It sounds like some Mariah Carey bulls--t.' It's emblematic of this thing about Amy. She can cut you down to size in two seconds flat."