Steve Lawrence of Popular Theater Duo Steve & Eydie Dies at 88: NPR

NEW YORK – Steve Lawrence, a high-profile singer and entertainer who as a solo artist and with his wife Eydie Gorme kept Tin Pan Alley alive during the rock era, died Thursday. He was 88 years old.

Lawrence, whose hits included “Go Away Little Girl,” died of complications due to Alzheimer’s disease, said family spokeswoman Susan DuBow.

Lawrence and Gorme, or Steve & Eydie, were known for their frequent appearances on talk shows, nightclubs, and Las Vegas stages. The duo was inspired by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and other composers.

Shortly after Elvis Presley and other rock music pioneers began to dominate radio and records, Lawrence and his wife were approached about changing their style.

“We had a chance to get in on the ground floor of rock ‘n’ roll,” he recalled in a 1989 interview. “It was 1957 and everything was changing, but I wanted to be Sinatra, not Rick Nelson.

“Our audience knows that we are not going to load heavy metal or set the drummer on fire, although we have talked about it some nights,” he joked.

Although Lawrence and Gorme were best known as a team, both also had major solo hits within just a few months of each other in the early 1960s.

Dionne Warwick, a longtime friend, said in a statement that Lawrence was “resting in comfort in the arms of Heavenly Father. My deepest condolences.”

Lawrence scored her first hit in 1962 with the achingly romantic ballad “Go Away Little Girl,” written by the Brill Building songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Gorme matched her success the following year with “Blame It on the Bossa Nova,” an upbeat tune about a dance trend at the time that was written by Brill hitmakers Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

In the 1970s, Lawrence and his wife were a top attraction at Las Vegas casinos and nightclubs across the country. They also appeared regularly on television, doing specials and as guests on various shows.

In the 1980s, when Las Vegas reduced headline performances and nightclubs became scarcer, the couple moved to auditoriums and attracted large audiences.

“People come with a general idea of ​​what they’re going to get with us,” Lawrence said in 1989. “It’s like a product. They buy a certain cereal and they know what to expect in that package.”

A career that spanned television, Broadway and nightclubs.

Lawrence launched her professional singing career at age 15. After two failed auditions for the television show “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts”, he was accepted on the third try, winning the contest and the prize of appearing on Godfrey’s popular daytime radio show for a week.

King Records, impressed by the teenager’s strong two-octave voice, signed him to a contract. His first album, “Poinciana,” sold more than 100,000 copies, and his high school allowed him to miss classes to promote it with out-of-town singing dates.

After several guest appearances on Steve Allen’s television show, Lawrence was hired as a regular. When the show became NBC’s “Tonight” in 1954, he followed it, singing and exchanging jokes with Allen. The series set the tone for the long-running program “The Tonight Show.”

“I think Steve Allen was the most important thing that happened to me,” said Lawrence, who stayed with the show’s host for five years, honing his comedic skills and attracting a wide audience with his singing. “Every night they asked me to do something different. In its own way, it was better than vaudeville.”

Early in the series, a young singer named Eydie Gorme joined the cast. After singing together for four years, she and Lawrence married in 1957.

Until Gorme’s death in 2013, they remained popular, whether working together in concert or making separate television appearances.

His reasoning: “If we did television together all the time, why would anyone go see us at a club?”

She appeared on shows such as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Gilmore Girls,” “Diagnosis Murder” and “The Nanny.”

He and his wife starred together on “The Steve Lawrence-Eydie Gorme Show” in 1958 and Lawrence had his own series, “The Steve Lawrence Show,” in 1965.

He also made stage appearances without Gorme, including a starring role in a summer 1962 version of “Pal Joey.” He came to Broadway in 1964 (and earned a Tony nomination) in the musical “What Makes Sammy Run?” Based on Budd Schulberg’s classic novel about a New York con artist who works his way to the top of the entertainment world.

Critics praised Lawrence but gave the play poor reviews. Still, he made a profit and insiders attributed their success to his performance.

Lawrence also had a few character roles in films, most notably “Stand Up and Be Counted,” “Blues Brothers 2000,” “The Lonely Guy” and “The Yards.”

Lawrence and Gorme, native New Yorkers, lived in a Manhattan apartment during their early years together. When the center of television entertainment moved to Hollywood, they moved to Beverly Hills.

Born Sidney Liebowitz in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, Lawrence was the son of a Jewish cantor who worked as a house painter. He began singing in his father’s synagogue choir at age 8, and in his mid-teens he moved on to bars and clubs. He took his name from the names of two of his nephews.

He and Gorme had two sons, David, a composer, and Michael. Michael, who had long suffered from heart problems, died of heart failure in 1986, aged 23.

“My father was an inspiration to many people,” his son David said in a statement. “But, to me, he was just a charming, handsome, hysterically funny guy who sang a lot. Sometimes alone and sometimes with his incredibly talented wife. I’m very lucky to have had him as a father and I’m very proud to be his son.” “.