Timi Yuro
b. Rosemarie Yuro, 4 August 1940, Chicago, Illinois USA. Yuro moved to Los Angeles, USA, as a child and by the late '50s was singing in her mother's Italian restaurant. She was signed to Liberty by the company's head Al Bennett and recorded her most famous track, Hurt in 1961. Produced by Clyde Otis, who had supervised many of Dinah Washington's hits, the dramatic ballad was a revival of Roy Hamilton's 1954 R&B hit. Yuro's searing white soul rendering entered the Top 10 in 1961 and inspired numerous artists to cover the song, notably Elvis Presley, whose version was a Top 30 hit in 1976. The follow-ups I Apologise and Smile made less impact, but in 1962, What's A Matter Baby? reached the Top 20. Yuro had minor hits with Make The World Go Away (a greater success the following year for Eddy Arnold ) and the country song Gotta Travel On. Her Liberty albums contained a mix of standard ballads such as Hoagy Carmichael's’ Stardust’ and soul songs (Hallelujah I Love Him So), but mid-60s records for Mercury found Yuro veering towards a more mainstream cabaret repertoire. There were later records for Playboy (1975) and in 1981, a reissued Hurt was a big hit in The Netherlands. This led to a new recording deal with Polydor. During the late '80s Yuro recorded an album of songs by Willie Nelson but soon afterwards her performing career was curtailed by serious illness.