Song of the Day 2/1: Laura Nyro, “Stoney End”

For reasons that are obvious to me, if nobody else.

Even more than Randy Newman, Laura Nyro was a singer’s songwriter. Despite her soaring mezzo-soprano voice and compositions that somehow blended Tin Pan Alley with gospel, blue-eyed soul and rock, she never recorded a hit or a gold record. Yet her first three LPs served almost as demo tapes for other singers. “And When I Die” became a hit for Blood, Sweat and Tears (she turned down the band’s offer to become their lead singer after Al Kooper departed), “Wedding Bell Blues” and “Stoned Soul Picnic” for the Fifth Dimension, “Eli’s Coming” for Three Dog Night.

In the wake of that success, she dropped out of the business for several years and only sporadically recorded new music before her death from ovarian cancer in 1997.

“Stoney End” was included on Nyro’s first LP, originally titled “More Than a New Discovery,” released in 1967, when Nyro was 19 (it was re-released as “First Songs” in 1973). It was much-covered through the mid-’70s, most notably by Barbra Streisand, whose version reached No. 6 on the Hot 100 in 1970.

“Stoney End” was the song Sara Bareilles performed when Nyro was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

My favorite cover was by jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, who included it on his 1971 LP of popular hits. Ferguson also plays valve trombone on the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MR3HhiwmP0