Steve Lawrence died Thursday. He was a charismatic crooner who won Grammys and Emmys and entertained people for decades in nightclubs, concerts, movies, and TV shows. He was 88 years old.
Susan DuBow, Lawrence’s publicist, said that she died in Los Angeles of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. His wife of 55 years, the late Eydie Gormé, and he were in a very popular act together.
Lawrence got his start in show business when he won a talent contest on Arthur Godfrey’s CBS show and signed with King Records as a teenager. He had boyish good looks, a smooth voice, and a light personality. Instead of giving in to the allure of rock ‘n’ roll, the singer chose to stay old school.
Lawrence once said, “It didn’t strike me as much.” “When I was a kid, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Sammy Cahn, and Julie Stein all wrote music.” What those people were writing spoke to me because it was much more melodic.
Lawrence’s smooth sounds could be heard on dozens of solo albums, beginning with an album with the same name in 1953. His 1963 number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 was the Gerry Goffin and Carole King ballad “Go Away Little Girl.” Once Donny Osmond’s version came out in 1971, it was the first single in history to reach No. 1 by two different artists.
Lawrence also had four other songs in the top ten: “Party Doll” (No. 5), “Pretty Blue Eyes” (No. 9), “Footsteps” (No. 7), and “Portrait of My Love” (No. 9).
Lawrence was nominated for a Tony Award in 1964 for his role as Sammy Glick in the long-running musical What Makes Sammy Run?, which was based on Budd Schulberg’s book of the same name. After a year, he hosted a short-lived CBS variety show. In the 1970s, he was a semi-regular on The Carol Burnett Show, showing up on more than twenty episodes.
Lawrence played manager Maury Sline in The Blues Brothers (1980), which is something that many people will remember him for. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd play Jake and Elwood, two kids who need to quickly raise money to save the orphanage where they grew up. They ask Maury to book a gig for them. Lawrence says one of the most memorable lines in the movie when he finds out how much they want. He blurts out, “Five thousand dollars?” “What do you think you are?” What about The Beatles?”
In the 1960s and 1970s, when they were at the top of their game, Lawrence and Gormé were one of the hottest couples in show business. It was only a matter of time before Steve & Eydie were booked for a TV variety show.
In 1979, they won an Emmy for their NBC special, Steve & Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin. They also had fun on game shows like Password All-Stars, What’s My Line?, and I’ve Got a Secret.
Their fans loved them in concert and at the best nightclubs across the country when they weren’t shining on TV. They played at Caesars Palace, the Sands, the Sahara, the Desert Inn, and many other places in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Entertainment Awards named them Musical Variety Act of the Year four times.
Lawrence’s lifelong dream came true in 1981 when he and his wife played a series of sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall.
In his review for The New York Times, John S. Wilson said, “They are both sure of themselves as singers with full throats who have the kind of stage presence that can only come from years of playing to Las Vegas crowds.” “Mr. Lawrence, like many other singers in that style, sings in a way that owes a lot to Frank Sinatra. Miss Gormé, on the other hand, has a smoky voice with strong projection that lets her belt out torch songs with a look that brings famous singers like Sophie Tucker up to date.”
Sidney Liebowitz was Steve Lawrence’s birth name. He was born in Brooklyn on July 8, 1935. He sang in synagogue choirs as a child because his father was a cantor. There was music in his life all along, but he didn’t know where it would lead him until he heard his first Sinatra record.
“I think I was 15 years old when I heard him.” “I believe I knew at that time what I wanted to do with my music,” he said. I, along with everyone who came after him, will never forget how much he changed things.
In later years, Lawrence would hang out with Sinatra and the rest of the Rat Park. Also, Steve & Eydie would open for Ol’ Blue Eyes on his Diamond Jubilee World Tour. Starting in 1990 and going for almost a year, they played 41 sold-out shows in 13 countries, ending with a show at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Lawrence went to Thomas Jefferson High School, but reading wasn’t a big deal. He would skip school and spend his days in Manhattan at the Brill Building, where he would try to make connections and get paid to sing demos. He first met Gormé at the place where he wrote songs; he was walking in while a friend, singer Bob Manning, was leaving with her.
It was in 2014 that Lawrence told the Los Angeles Times, “Bob told me, ‘I want you to meet Eydie Gormé.’” “Her ponytail hit me in the face,” I said.
In 1953, they met again when they were both booked to sing on Tonight!, which was run by Steve Allen and came before The Tonight Show. They started singing together, and after two years, they made their first single together, “(Close Your Eyes) Take a Deep Breath”/”Besame Mucho.”
The wedding took place at the El Rancho Vegas hotel in December 1957. After a few months, they filled in for Allen on an NBC summer replacement variety show that ran for eight weeks.
After two years in the U.S. Army, they put out three albums in 1960. The title track of Steve & Eydie We Got Us won them a Grammy.
In 1968, they went to Broadway to be in the first production of Golden Rainbow, which ran for more than 380 performances. As the first act came to a close, Lawrence sang “I’ve Gotta Be Me,” which later became a hit for Sammy Davis Jr.
Even though they were both successful as solo artists, Steve and Eydie’s fans seemed to like them better together. They did this until August 2013, when Gormé died of an illness that was not made public. Lawrence said at the time, “Eydie has been my partner on stage and in life for more than 55 years.” “I loved her the first time I saw her and even more the first time I heard her sing.” The world has lost one of the best pop singers of all time, and I can’t even begin to imagine my own loss.
Lawrence put out his own album When You Come Back to Me Again a year after Gormé died. He had recorded it while she was sick and put it on hold when she died. As soon as Lawrence got back to making music, he thought it would be fitting to give the album to his wife as a Valentine’s Day gift.
Lawrence said, “Eydie heard that album and thought it was great.” “We were joined at the hip, Steve and Eyedie.” Being married for so long made us feel like one person.
Lawrence wouldn’t go back to the stage for more than two years. He sang some Sinatra songs at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert on Valentine’s Day 2016, which was a Wednesday.
His son David, a film and TV composer whose work includes the High School Musical telefilms, his daughter-in-law Faye, his granddaughter Mabel, and his brother Bernie are all still alive. Michael, another son, died of heart failure when he was 23 years old in 1986.