Song:Hurt
Album:Hurt: The Best Of Timi Yuro
When folks heard this 1961 top five hit, they thought the singer was black or a man or a black man. No one believed that a tiny Italian girl from Chicago named Timi Yuro could possibly have a voice that powerful. Hurt would turn out to be the biggest hit of her career. Timi was very frustrated by poor song selection by her record company. She was born Aug. 4, 1941 in Chicago. Her parents owned an Italian restaurant. She took voice lessons as a child. Supposedly her nanny snuck her into local blues clubs and Timi got to see Mildred Bailey and Dinah Washington perform live. Her family moved to Los Angeles and Timi performed regularly at the family restaurant. This got the attention of Liberty Records talent scout Sonny Knight and this led to a contract. They started gathering songs for her recording debut. But Timi thought the songs were too lightweight for her voice. She stomped into a board meeting and told Liberty brass that if they couldn't find better songs for her, they could rip up her contract. And she immediately launched into an a capella version of Hurt. Hurt was written by veteran Tin Pan Alley songwriters Al Jacobs and Jimmie Crane and was a top ten R & B hit for Roy Hamilton in 1954. She was immediately sent to the studio with producer Clyde Otis and the result was that Hurt reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Though some of her other songs charted, song selection continued to be a problem and Timi left Liberty for Mercury in 1964. She returned to Liberty in 1968 but she was never able to reach the heights of Hurt again. You can get the original versions of her Liberty recordings on this Capitol comp. Timi Yuro continued to tour and occasionally record. She was very popular in The Netherlands. And Elvis Presley was another big fan. When she worked Las Vegas casinos in the late 60s, he would reserve a whole table to see her perform. And he also recorded Hurt in 1976. And Juice Newton topped the country charts with Hurt in 1986. Timi Yuro was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1980 and a 1984 tracheotomy ended her singing career. She died Mar. 30, 2004 at age 63. Here's Timi Yuro performing Hurt in Rotterdam 1981.
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