Laura Nyro; Pop Singer and Songwriter

Laura Nyro, singer and songwriter who in her teens ironically wrote the circle-of-life anthem “And When I Die” popularized by Peter, Paul and Mary and Blood, Sweat and Tears, has died at age 49.

Nyro, who had suffered from ovarian cancer, died Tuesday in her home in Danbury, Conn.

Profile Records has been preparing a retrospective of Nyro’s career, which flourished in the late 1960s and early ‘70s.

As a songwriter, Nyro created other hits--”Wedding Bell Blues” and “Stoned Soul Picnic,” recorded by the Fifth Dimension; “Eli’s Coming,” made famous by Three Dog Night, and “Stoney End,” popularized by Barbra Streisand.

As a singer, Nyro was known for such albums as “Eli and the Thirteenth Confession,” which included her own version of “Eli’s Coming.” She was praised by critics for her intonation and remarkable vocal range, which could sweep from a whisper to anguished vibrato in a single phrase.

She became a style-setter in her appearance as well as her music when young girls across the country copied her long, loose hair parted in the middle and long, funky skirts.

Nyro gave several concerts in Southern California beginning at the Troubadour in 1969. The next year, she sang in UCLA’s Royce Hall and even made two standing-ovation appearances at the stately Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, which had rarely welcomed popular singers.

“As usual,” Times pop music critic Robert Hilburn wrote after the downtown concert, “Miss Nyro’s performance Saturday was a blend of totally impressive writing and vocal ability. No matter how fondly one remembers her last vocal appearances, the excellence of her music and voice exceeds the memories.”

Saddened by news of her death Wednesday, Hilburn commented: “Laura Nyro was one of the great songwriters of the modern pop era, someone who brought together rich musical traditions from Broadway brightness to blues sensuality in a wonderfully original, poetic body of work that explored questions of desire and doubt with a maturity and passion.”

Born Laura Nigro in New York’s Bronx, she was the daughter of a jazz trumpeter and became interested in music as a child. Early on she began fusing Broadway, folk, rhythm and blues, gospel and white soul into her trademark eclectic mix.

“I always sang, from the time I could make noise,” she told Life magazine in 1970. “And I always wrote. I always wrote little poems, and at about 8 or 9 I started writing little songs.”

She was 17 when Peter, Paul and Mary made her song “And When I Die” a hit.

Consistently credited by critics with singing her own compositions far better than the better-known singers who made them hits, Nyro recorded her first album before she was 20.

Her increasingly introspective albums included “A New Discovery--The First Songs” in 1967, the Eli album in 1968, “New York Tendaberry” in 1969, “Christmas and the Beads of Sweat” in 1970, “Gonna Take a Miracle” in 1971, “Smile” in 1976, “Season of Lights” in 1978, “Nested” in 1979, “Mother’s Spiritual” in 1985, “Live at the Bottom Line” in 1990 and “Walk the Dog and Light the Light” in 1993.

After early success as a singer and songwriter, Nyro totally withdrew from music in 1973 after her marriage. She returned to composition and performing after her divorce, and in recent years had enjoyed a renewed ripple of popularity.