TIMI YURO

A petite woman of Italian-American descent, Rosemarie Timotea "Timi" Yuro was the first lady of blue-eyed soul. (For the uninitiated, that's soul music performed by white people.)

She was born in Chicago on August 4, 1940. By 1952, the Yuros had moved to Los Angeles, where Timi’s mother took her to the renowned vocal coach, Dr. Lilian Goodman. Reportedly, Goodman—whose clientele included actress Elizabeth Taylor and pop star Frankie Laine—was so impressed with the 12-year-old, she agreed to coach Timi at a greatly reduced rate.

In her teens, Yuro took a waitressing job and, with her mother's strong disapproval, started performing in local nightclubs. In 1958, the Yuros opened a restaurant in Hollywood where their daughter would give concerts. In 1959, Liberty Records talent scout Sonny Knight (who’d had a hit single in 1956, “Confidential”) checked out her show and brought her to label chief Si Waronker, who signed her up.

Yuro spent two frustrating years at Liberty as the label had never worked with a singer of her caliber and didn’t know what to do with her. In the spring of 1961, a frustrated Yuro burst in on a board meeting and threatened to tear up her contract unless Liberty let her record more fitting material. She suggested the pop ballad, “Hurt.” (It previously was a 1954 hit for the R&B crooner, Roy Hamilton.) Rather than give her the boot, Liberty had Yuro record the song. Her blue-eyed-soul take was produced by Clyde Otis, Liberty’s first Black producer, who had worked with Brook Benton and Dinah Washington.

However, Liberty was not completely sold on “Hurt” and did not want to release it. So Yuro took an acetate of the song to a radio D.J. in Chicago, who immediately made it a “Pick Hit.” When radio stations across the country started phoning Liberty to request copies of “Hurt,” the label finally put it out. The single zoomed up the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #4. It also made the R&B chart at #22. (“Hurt” would see additional life in 1976, when Elvis Presley took it to #28.) Radio announcers called her "Miss Timi Yuro," lest listeners think that this new singer with the androgynous name and contralto voice was male.

In 1962, Yuro received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist and opened for Frank Sinatra on his Australian tour. That same year also gave Yuro her second-biggest hit. Co-produced by Clyde Otis and Bob Johnston, “What’s a Matter Baby (Is It Hurting You?)” was, if anything, even more soulful than “Hurt” had been. Yuro’s emotionally intense but elegant delivery propelled the song to #12 pop and #16 R&B. (The British band Small Faces would release a cover of "What's a Matter Baby" as the B-side of their first single.)

The year 1963 saw the release of Make the World Go Away, an album of blues and country standards. The title track, a cover of the Ray Price original, became Yuro’s third-biggest single, reaching #24 on the Billboard Hot 100. (The song was an even bigger hit for country star Eddy Arnold in 1965.) She also toured Europe in 1963, appearing on the British TV program, “Ready Steady Go!”

In 1964, Yuro signed with Mercury Records, but her time there proved less than lucrative. Her only charted single for the label, “You Can Have Him,” reached a modest #96 in Billboard. Still, she considered The Amazing Timi Yuro, her first Mercury LP, the best album she ever made. (It was produced by Quincy Jones.)

Yuro twice appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” and performed on “American Bandstand,” “Where the Action Is,” and “The Lloyd Thaxton Show.” She also did some acting work in the Philippines—first on a TV show called “Student Canteen,” and later in the film comedy, Buhay Marino (Life of a Sailor). In 1968, she re-signed with Liberty and recorded in London. There, she also played the Kray twins’ club. 

Yuro performed twice (in 1965 and ‘68) at the Festival di Sanremo in Italy. Despite her soulful singing, she had developed a reputation as a cabaret performer and saw her career declining. In 1969, she got married, moved to Las Vegas, and quit music altogether. She did, however, perform in 1970 at Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum as part of an oldies revival show.

In 1981, Timi Yuro performed in Holland as a guest of honor on Dutch national television. She made a re-recording of “Hurt” that became a top five smash in the Netherlands. She also recorded a new album, All Alone Am I, for the Dutch label, Dureco. It went to #1 in that country and was certified gold.  Yuro relocated to the Netherlands, where she enjoyed a series of hit singles and albums. When her record sales fell off mid-decade, Yuro returned to the States. Her last album, Today, was produced by Willie Nelson, whose song “Permanently Lonely” Yuro had recorded in the early ‘60s. It came out on the Ariola label in 1982 and was reissued on CD eight years later on her own label as Timi Yuro Sings Willie Nelson.

Yuro was diagnosed with throat cancer in the 1990s. She died in Las Vegas on March 30, 2004, at the age of sixty-three. The English rock star Morrissey noted her death on his website and called Yuro his favorite singer. Bob Dickinson wrote in The Guardian, “Her deep, strident, almost masculine voice, staggered delivery and the occasional sob created a compelling musical presence.”

Charted singles:

“Hurt” (1961) Pop #4, R&B #22
“I Apologize” (1961) Pop #72
“She Really Loves You” (1961) Pop #93
“Let Me Call You Sweetheart” (1962) Pop #66
“What’s a Matter Baby (Is It Hurting You?)” (1962) Pop #12, R&B #16
“The Love of a Boy” (1962) Pop #44
“Insult to Injury” (1963) Pop #81
“Make the World Go Away” (1963) Pop #24
“Gotta Travel On” (1963) Pop #64
“Permanently Lonely” (1964) Pop #130
“If” (1964) Pop #120
“You Can Have Him” (1965) Pop #96
“Once a Day” (1966) Pop #118
“Southern Lady” (1975) Pop #108

Other notable Timi Yuro recordings include “I’m Movin’ On” (1963), “I Can’t Keep Running Away” (1965), “Something Bad On My Mind” (1968), and “It’ll Never Be Over For Me” (1969).