Profile of Timi Yuro on Famous Like Me

Timi Yuro (August 4, 1940–March 30, 2004) was an American soul and R&B singer. She is considered to be one of the first blue-eyed soul stylists of the rock era.

Yuro was born Rosemarie Timotea Aurro in Chicago, Illinois, and moved with her family to Los Angeles. There, she sang in her parents' Italian restaurant and in local clubs before catching the eye and ear of record executives. Signed to Liberty Records, she had a Top Ten hit in 1961 with "Hurt", an R&B ballad that had been an early success for Roy Hamilton. On "Hurt" and on her Top 20 follow-up, "What's a Matter Baby (Is It Hurting You?)", Yuro showed an emotional but elegant vocal style that owed a debt to Dinah Washington and other black jazz singers. Many listeners in the early 1960s thought Yuro was black.

In 1963, Yuro released Make the World Go Away, an album of country and blues standards. It includes a powerful title track of the same name, and a beautifully understated version of Willie Nelson's "Permanently Lonely". The singer was also known for soulful reworkings of popular American standards, such as "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" and "Smile".

Yuro's career soon lost its early momentum, and she quit the music business altogether after her marriage in 1972. When Yuro began to sing again in the 1980s, her doctors detected throat cancer. Her larynx was eventually removed and after a long battle with cancer, she died in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2004. Her last recording was the 1984 CD Timi Yuro Sings Willie Nelson, produced by her old friend Nelson.

Yuro's work is admired in the United States as well as in Great Britain and the Netherlands. Her fans have included Elvis Presley and the British rocker Morrissey.

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