40 Facts About Laura Nyro

Laura Nyro was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist.

Laura Nyro achieved critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry, and had commercial success with artists such as Barbra Streisand and the 5th Dimension recording her songs.

Laura Nyro was praised for her strong emotive vocal style and 3-octave mezzo-soprano vocal range.

Laura Nyro was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

Laura Nyro was of Russian Jewish and Polish Jewish descent, with Italian American ancestry from her paternal grandfather.

Laura Nyro's father gave her the name "Laura", after hearing the title theme of the 1944 film Laura.

However, after Laura left high school, she chose her own surname, "Nyro", having it pronounced as -oh.

Laura Nyro was close to her aunt and uncle, artists Theresa Bernstein and William Meyerowitz, who helped support her education and early career.

Mogull had negotiated a recording and management contract for her, and Laura Nyro recorded her debut album, More Than a New Discovery, for the Verve Folkways label.

Laura Nyro completed More Than A New Discovery in New York on November 29,1966; and, starting on January 16,1967, made her first extended professional appearance at age 19, performing nightly for about a month at the "hungry i" coffeehouse in San Francisco.

On March 4,1967, Laura Nyro appeared on Clay Cole's Diskoteck, Episode 7.23, along with Dion and the Belmonts and others, but the recording of the episode is lost.

On June 17,1967, Laura Nyro appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival.

Laura Nyro successfully sued to void her management and recording contracts on the grounds that she had entered into them while still a minor.

Geffen arranged Laura Nyro's new recording contract with Clive Davis at Columbia Records, and purchased the publishing rights to her early compositions.

Under the terms of his partnership with Laura Nyro, Geffen received half of the proceeds of the sale, making them both millionaires.

Geffen invited Laura Nyro to join the new label and announced that she would be Asylum's first singer; however, shortly before the signing was due to take place, Geffen learned that Laura Nyro had re-signed with Columbia instead, without telling him.

Laura Nyro was reportedly uncomfortable with attempts to market her as a celebrity and she announced her retirement from the music business at the age of 24.

Laura Nyro then embarked on a four-month tour with a full band, which resulted in the 1977 live album Season of Lights.

Laura Nyro began touring with a band in 1988, her first concert appearances in 10 years.

Laura Nyro turned down lucrative film-composing offers, although she contributed a rare protest song to the Academy Award-winning documentary Broken Rainbow, about the unjust relocation of the Navajo people.

Laura Nyro performed increasingly in the 1980s and 1990s with female musicians, including her friend Nydia "Liberty" Mata, a drummer, and several others from the lesbian-feminist women's music subculture, such as members of the band Isis.

Laura Nyro appeared at such venues as the 1989 Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and the 1989 Newport Folk Festival, of which a CD containing portions of her performance was released.

Laura Nyro never released an official video, although there was talk of filming some The Bottom Line appearances in the 1990s.

Laura Nyro was bisexual, though this fact was known only to her closest friends.

Laura Nyro married Vietnam War veteran David Bianchini in October 1971 after a whirlwind romance and spent the next three years living with him in a small town in Massachusetts.

Laura Nyro consoled herself largely by recording a new album, enlisting Charlie Calello, with whom she had collaborated on Eli and the Thirteenth Confession.

Laura Nyro lived to see the release of Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro in 1997.

Laura Nyro died of ovarian cancer in Danbury, Connecticut, on April 8,1997, at 49, the same age at which her mother died.

Laura Nyro's ashes were scattered beneath a maple tree on the grounds of her house in Danbury.

Laura Nyro addressed Nyro's influence on his 1970 song "Burn Down the Mission", from Tumbleweed Connection, in particular.

Laura Nyro got excited and brought him into a room where she kept her record collection.

Laura Nyro pulled out well-worn copies of every Orpheus LP, as well as copies sealed for posterity.

Alice Cooper has mentioned on his syndicated radio show that Laura Nyro is one of his favorite songwriters.

Janis Ian, who attended the High School of Music and Art in New York at the same time as Laura Nyro, discussed her friendship with Laura Nyro during the late 1960s in her autobiography, Society's Child.

Laura Nyro dedicated a song, "The Woman I Could've Been" on Excuses for Bad Behavior, to her.

Laura Nyro sang Nyro's "I Never Meant to Hurt You" in her film Without You I'm Nothing.

Laura Nyro invited Rundgren to become the musical director of her backing group, but his commitments to Nazz obliged him to decline.

Rundgren's debut solo album Runt includes the strongly Laura Nyro-influenced "Baby Let's Swing" which was written about her and mentions her by name.

Rundgren and Laura Nyro remained friends for much of her professional career and he subsequently assisted her with the recording of her album Mother's Spiritual.

The album features ten Laura Nyro songs performed by a long list of stars including Rickie Lee Jones, Shawn Colvin, Alison Krauss, Dianne Reeves, and Wayne Shorter.