Dreams of a Kitten by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Dreams of a Kitten

Page 204

contemporaries such as Elton John idolized her. She was praised

for her emotive three octave mezzo-soprano voice.

Between 1968 and 1970, a number of artists had hits with her

songs: the 5th Dimension with "Blowing Away", "Wedding Bell

Blues", "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Sweet Blindness", and "Save the

Country"; Blood, Sweat and Tears and Peter, Paul and Mary with

"And When I Die"; Three Dog Night and Maynard Ferguson with

"Eli's Comin'"; and Barbra Streisand with "Stoney End", "Time

and Love", and "Hands off the Man (Flim Flam Man)". Nyro's best

selling single was her recording of Carole King's and Gerry

Goffin's "Up on the Roof."

Nyro was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame

in 2010, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

Nyro was born in The Bronx, New York City, the daughter of Louis

Nigro, a piano tuner and jazz trumpeter, and Gilda (née Mirsky)

Nigro, a bookkeeper. Laura had a younger brother, Jan Nigro, who

has become a children's musician. Laura was of Russian and

Polish descent, with Italian American ancestry from her paternal

grandfather. Her father gave her the name "Laura," after hearing

the title theme of the 1944 film “Laura.” Nigro and his family

often insisted that their surname be pronounced as NIGH-ro