New Winehouse album: another posthumous classic?

A NEW Amy Winehouse album hits the shelves this month, featuring unreleased songs and alternative versions of existing hits. With Lioness: Hidden Treasures, the iconic singer joins a select band of musicians for whom death is no barrier to fresh output...
 
The Notorious BIG
 
Christopher ‘Biggie’ Wallace is recognised as one of the greatest rappers ever, despite releasing just one album before he was shot dead in 1997. Life After Death was released two weeks later to critical acclaim and reached No 1 in the US album charts. It went diamond (10 million units sold) in 2000, making it one of the biggest-selling rap albums of all time. Born Again followed in 1999, recycling unrecorded verses, and Duets: The Final Chapter reached No 3 in 2005.
 
John Lennon
 
Following his death, the three remaining Beatles asked Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono for any of his unreleased material that could be made into a song. They were given a demo from 1977, which became the 1995 single Free as a Bird. It reached No 2 in the UK and No 6 in the US, which meant that the Fab Four had charted in four consecutive decades. Critics were not kind, however. The Independent branded the song a “dirge”.
 
Aaliyah
 
The R & B singer was just 22 when her private jet crashed in 2001, killing all passengers. A string of hit singles followed, leading to a new album I Care 4 U being released the following year, and it became a global smash, selling six million copies worldwide. Aaliyah also had a box office-hit with the 2002 vampire film Queen of the Damned, which was completed by her brother dubbing the lines she had been unable to record.
 
Michael Jackson
 
Sony has released six Jackson albums since the King of Pop died of a cardiac arrest in 2009. This is it was the most successful, going double platinum in the USA, and earning Jackson a Grammy nomination. Released as a two-disc accompaniment to the concert documentary of the same name, This is it featured new duets and alternative versions of early classics. More Jackson releases are inevitable.
 
Frederic Chopin
 
The Polish pianist is remembered as one of the great composers of the Romantic period. Even after his death in 1849, his works continued to inspire, with 23 unpublished piano pieces becoming opuses 66-73 in 1855. Two years later, 17 more songs were collected and published as opuses, and discoveries continued into the 20th century, although none of these have been given opus numbers.  ·