Timi Yuro, 63; Pop Singer of 1960s Best Known for ‘Hurt’

Timi Yuro, a 1960s pop singer known best for her wrenching, top-10 recording of Jimmie Crane’s “Hurt,” has died. Yuro, who was 63, died Tuesday of cancer at her home in Las Vegas, according to Roger Peacock, her longtime manager.

Born Rosemary Timothy Aurro Yuro in Chicago, Yuro moved to Los Angeles with her family as a child, and as a teenager sang in her parents’ Italian restaurant, Alvoturno’s.

She recorded “Hurt” in 1961 for the Liberty label. She told David Freeland in “Ladies of Soul” that she sang the song with so much feeling because “I was in love with the guitar player in the band.... I found him in bed with a girl I knew.”

The song was later covered by many artists, including Elvis Presley in 1976. He was said to have included Yuro among his favorite women singers.

She later recorded “What’s a Matter Baby,” “The Love of a Boy,” “I Apologize,” “Make the World Go Away” and “Gotta Travel On.”

John Clarke, music critic for Independent of London, wrote in 2000 that “going by looks alone, most people would class Timi Yuro as an average American lounge singer.”

“But few white artists put as much heart and soul into their performances as Yuro did,” Clarke said.