Biography
Although most of her professional life unfolded amid the dominance of rock music, traditional pop vocalist Eydie Gorme established herself across multiple entertainment domains. Over two decades spanning the mid-1950s through the mid-1970s she maintained steady placements on the pop singles charts, while simultaneously building a parallel presence in the Latin pop arena beginning in the 1960s. Television appearances and Broadway performances further expanded her visibility, and she headlined major nightclub venues, including prominent Las Vegas showrooms and additional U.S. locations. Throughout the bulk of her career she balanced solo work with regular duo performances alongside her husband, Steve Lawrence.
Born Edith Gormezano on August 16, 1931, in the Bronx borough of New York City, Gorme was the youngest of three children of Sephardic Jewish immigrant parents; her father, a tailor, had come from Sicily, and her mother had come from Turkey. Both Spanish and English were spoken at home, so she became fluent in each language from childhood. An early interest in singing led to a radio debut at age three. While still in high school she performed with a band directed by her friend Ken Greengrass. After graduation she worked as a Spanish interpreter at the Theatrical Supply Export Company and took night classes at the City College of New York. She soon decided to pursue singing professionally, with Greengrass acting as her manager. In 1950 bandleader Tommy Tucker hired her for a two-month tour. She then spent a year with Tex Beneke’s orchestra before embarking on a solo career. Coral Records signed her in 1952 and began issuing singles, the first of which was “That Night of Heaven.” In September 1953 she joined the cast of the late-night program Tonight!, then hosted by Steve Allen and broadcast only in New York; singer Steve Lawrence was already a regular on the show. National NBC broadcast of the program commenced on September 27, 1954. Around the same period Lawrence and Gorme issued their initial joint single, the double-sided release “Make Yourself Comfortable”/“I’ve Gotta Crow,” the latter drawn from the Broadway musical Peter Pan.
Gorme first performed at New York’s Copacabana in February 1956. The previous year she had moved from Coral to ABC-Paramount; her second single for the new label, “Too Close for Comfort” from the Broadway musical Mr. Wonderful, entered the charts in April 1956 and reached the Top 40. Its successor, “Mama, Teach Me to Dance,” also climbed into the Top 40. Three additional chart singles appeared in 1957, the strongest being the Top 40 hit “Love Me Forever,” while two albums, Eydie Gormé and Eydie Swings the Blues, both reached the Top 20.
On December 29, 1957, Gorme married Lawrence. After Steve Allen departed Tonight!, he started a prime-time series; Lawrence and Gorme hosted its summer replacement, Steve Allen Presents the Steve Lawrence-Eydie Gormé Show, on Sunday evenings from eight to nine o’clock during July and August 1958. In 1958 she placed three more singles on the charts, the highest being the Top 20 entry “You Need Hands,” and she also secured two additional Top 20 albums, Eydie Vamps the Roaring ’20s and Eydie in Love. Recording and club work continued, yet her activity lessened somewhat in the late 1950s while she and Lawrence began raising a family—their first son, David Lawrence, later became a film composer—and while Lawrence completed his military service. They resumed joint engagements in 1960, highlighted by their first full-length duo album, We Got Us; the title track earned them the Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group.
Late in 1960 Gorme signed with United Artists Records, but no hits resulted, so she transferred to Columbia Records by 1962. Her initial Columbia single, a revival of “Yes My Darling Daughter,” reached the U.K. Top Ten in summer 1962. In the United States her recording career regained momentum in early 1963 with “Blame It on the Bossa Nova,” written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, which entered the Top Ten and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Female Vocal Performance. Four further chart singles appeared that year, two of them duets with her husband billed simply as Steve & Eydie. Those collaborations, I Want to Stay Here and I Can’t Stop Talking About You—both written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin—reached the Top 40, as did her solo album Blame It on the Bossa Nova.
The British Invasion of 1964 overshadowed traditional pop artists, yet Gorme attracted notice by joining Trio los Panchos for the Spanish-language album Amor, which remained on the charts for 22 weeks. A follow-up, More Amor, appeared with the trio in 1965. She simultaneously explored contemporary show tunes on singles, recording Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim’s “Do I Hear a Waltz?,” Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner’s “What Did I Have That I Don’t Have?” from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, and Jerry Herman’s “If He Walked Into My Life” from Mame. The last of these yielded a Top Ten easy-listening hit in 1966 and brought her first solo Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance. That same year her album Don’t Go to Strangers reached the Top 40, and the Spanish-language holiday set Navidad Means Christmas entered the Top Ten of the Christmas chart.
Chart activity persisted into 1967, though with reduced impact. Her solo album Softly, as I Leave You reached the Top 100, outperforming the duo album with Lawrence, Together on Broadway. By year’s end Columbia issued Eydie Gorme’s Greatest Hits, signaling the label’s view that her peak success lay in the past. Meanwhile she and Lawrence prepared for Broadway, agreeing to co-star in Golden Rainbow, an adaptation of Arnold Schulman’s play A Hole in the Head (previously the source for the Frank Sinatra film) featuring a new score by Walter Marks. Columbia’s subsidiary label released her recording of “How Could I Be So Wrong,” one of the show’s songs, which charted on the Easy Listening list in December 1967. Golden Rainbow opened February 4, 1968, ran 385 performances, and closed January 12, 1969. During this period Gorme and Lawrence continued recording for Columbia and Calendar before switching to RCA Victor Records in 1968. Their initial RCA Victor duo albums, the Gordon Jenkins–composed concept set What It Was, Was Love and Real True Lovin’, succeeded in 1969, while Gorme’s solo single “Tonight I’ll Say a Prayer” entered the charts that autumn, followed by an album of the same title in February 1970.
By the early 1970s major labels found it difficult to retain traditional pop singers. Gorme and Lawrence remained with RCA Victor through 1971, achieving several easy-listening entries, then moved to MGM Records, which attempted to sustain the traditional pop audience with artists including Tony Bennett. A Gorme solo album, It Was a Good Time, appeared in 1971, and the duo album The World of Steve & Eydie followed in 1972, producing a final pop-chart single, “We Can Make It Together” featuring the Osmonds; a handful of additional singles appeared in 1973. After that year Gorme ceased to register on the pop charts. Club and television engagements nevertheless sustained a loyal audience. The 1975 television special Our Love Is Here to Stay, a tribute to George Gershwin, generated an accompanying album and received an Emmy Award. Gorme simultaneously concentrated on the Latin market. Gala Records’ La Gorme earned a 1976 Grammy nomination for Best Latin Recording, and she received another nomination in 1977 for Muy Amigos, Close Friends, recorded with Danny Rivera. Occasional English-language releases continued; her United Artists single “What I Did for Love” from A Chorus Line returned her to the Easy Listening chart in September 1976. The Gershwin tribute’s success prompted further composer salutes. The 1978 special Steve and Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin captured seven Emmys, among them Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Program (Special or Series) awarded to Gorme and Lawrence as performers along with the producers and executive producers.
Recording activity diminished in the late 1970s and 1980s. Under the pseudonym Parker & Penny the duo placed the single “Hallelujah” on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1979. In 1989 they inaugurated their own GL Music label with the album Alone Together; GL later reissued earlier albums on CD via www.steveandeydie.com. Live performances, however, continued to draw large crowds at Las Vegas venues and prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York and the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles. Between 1990 and 1991 they joined Frank Sinatra on his “Diamond Jubilee” tour marking his 75th birthday and appeared on his 1994 album Duets II. They participated in the mid-1990s lounge-music revival by covering Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” for the 1997 Hollywood Records anthology Lounge-A-Palooza. Las Vegas appearances persisted into the new century; they closed the Circus Maximus showroom at Caesars Palace in September 2000 after a decade of performances there. Their next Las Vegas engagement opened April 29, 2004, at the Wayne Newton Theater of the Stardust Hotel. Eydie Gorme died in Las Vegas in August 2013 at the age of 84.
Born Edith Gormezano on August 16, 1931, in the Bronx borough of New York City, Gorme was the youngest of three children of Sephardic Jewish immigrant parents; her father, a tailor, had come from Sicily, and her mother had come from Turkey. Both Spanish and English were spoken at home, so she became fluent in each language from childhood. An early interest in singing led to a radio debut at age three. While still in high school she performed with a band directed by her friend Ken Greengrass. After graduation she worked as a Spanish interpreter at the Theatrical Supply Export Company and took night classes at the City College of New York. She soon decided to pursue singing professionally, with Greengrass acting as her manager. In 1950 bandleader Tommy Tucker hired her for a two-month tour. She then spent a year with Tex Beneke’s orchestra before embarking on a solo career. Coral Records signed her in 1952 and began issuing singles, the first of which was “That Night of Heaven.” In September 1953 she joined the cast of the late-night program Tonight!, then hosted by Steve Allen and broadcast only in New York; singer Steve Lawrence was already a regular on the show. National NBC broadcast of the program commenced on September 27, 1954. Around the same period Lawrence and Gorme issued their initial joint single, the double-sided release “Make Yourself Comfortable”/“I’ve Gotta Crow,” the latter drawn from the Broadway musical Peter Pan.
Gorme first performed at New York’s Copacabana in February 1956. The previous year she had moved from Coral to ABC-Paramount; her second single for the new label, “Too Close for Comfort” from the Broadway musical Mr. Wonderful, entered the charts in April 1956 and reached the Top 40. Its successor, “Mama, Teach Me to Dance,” also climbed into the Top 40. Three additional chart singles appeared in 1957, the strongest being the Top 40 hit “Love Me Forever,” while two albums, Eydie Gormé and Eydie Swings the Blues, both reached the Top 20.
On December 29, 1957, Gorme married Lawrence. After Steve Allen departed Tonight!, he started a prime-time series; Lawrence and Gorme hosted its summer replacement, Steve Allen Presents the Steve Lawrence-Eydie Gormé Show, on Sunday evenings from eight to nine o’clock during July and August 1958. In 1958 she placed three more singles on the charts, the highest being the Top 20 entry “You Need Hands,” and she also secured two additional Top 20 albums, Eydie Vamps the Roaring ’20s and Eydie in Love. Recording and club work continued, yet her activity lessened somewhat in the late 1950s while she and Lawrence began raising a family—their first son, David Lawrence, later became a film composer—and while Lawrence completed his military service. They resumed joint engagements in 1960, highlighted by their first full-length duo album, We Got Us; the title track earned them the Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group.
Late in 1960 Gorme signed with United Artists Records, but no hits resulted, so she transferred to Columbia Records by 1962. Her initial Columbia single, a revival of “Yes My Darling Daughter,” reached the U.K. Top Ten in summer 1962. In the United States her recording career regained momentum in early 1963 with “Blame It on the Bossa Nova,” written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, which entered the Top Ten and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Female Vocal Performance. Four further chart singles appeared that year, two of them duets with her husband billed simply as Steve & Eydie. Those collaborations, I Want to Stay Here and I Can’t Stop Talking About You—both written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin—reached the Top 40, as did her solo album Blame It on the Bossa Nova.
The British Invasion of 1964 overshadowed traditional pop artists, yet Gorme attracted notice by joining Trio los Panchos for the Spanish-language album Amor, which remained on the charts for 22 weeks. A follow-up, More Amor, appeared with the trio in 1965. She simultaneously explored contemporary show tunes on singles, recording Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim’s “Do I Hear a Waltz?,” Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner’s “What Did I Have That I Don’t Have?” from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, and Jerry Herman’s “If He Walked Into My Life” from Mame. The last of these yielded a Top Ten easy-listening hit in 1966 and brought her first solo Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance. That same year her album Don’t Go to Strangers reached the Top 40, and the Spanish-language holiday set Navidad Means Christmas entered the Top Ten of the Christmas chart.
Chart activity persisted into 1967, though with reduced impact. Her solo album Softly, as I Leave You reached the Top 100, outperforming the duo album with Lawrence, Together on Broadway. By year’s end Columbia issued Eydie Gorme’s Greatest Hits, signaling the label’s view that her peak success lay in the past. Meanwhile she and Lawrence prepared for Broadway, agreeing to co-star in Golden Rainbow, an adaptation of Arnold Schulman’s play A Hole in the Head (previously the source for the Frank Sinatra film) featuring a new score by Walter Marks. Columbia’s subsidiary label released her recording of “How Could I Be So Wrong,” one of the show’s songs, which charted on the Easy Listening list in December 1967. Golden Rainbow opened February 4, 1968, ran 385 performances, and closed January 12, 1969. During this period Gorme and Lawrence continued recording for Columbia and Calendar before switching to RCA Victor Records in 1968. Their initial RCA Victor duo albums, the Gordon Jenkins–composed concept set What It Was, Was Love and Real True Lovin’, succeeded in 1969, while Gorme’s solo single “Tonight I’ll Say a Prayer” entered the charts that autumn, followed by an album of the same title in February 1970.
By the early 1970s major labels found it difficult to retain traditional pop singers. Gorme and Lawrence remained with RCA Victor through 1971, achieving several easy-listening entries, then moved to MGM Records, which attempted to sustain the traditional pop audience with artists including Tony Bennett. A Gorme solo album, It Was a Good Time, appeared in 1971, and the duo album The World of Steve & Eydie followed in 1972, producing a final pop-chart single, “We Can Make It Together” featuring the Osmonds; a handful of additional singles appeared in 1973. After that year Gorme ceased to register on the pop charts. Club and television engagements nevertheless sustained a loyal audience. The 1975 television special Our Love Is Here to Stay, a tribute to George Gershwin, generated an accompanying album and received an Emmy Award. Gorme simultaneously concentrated on the Latin market. Gala Records’ La Gorme earned a 1976 Grammy nomination for Best Latin Recording, and she received another nomination in 1977 for Muy Amigos, Close Friends, recorded with Danny Rivera. Occasional English-language releases continued; her United Artists single “What I Did for Love” from A Chorus Line returned her to the Easy Listening chart in September 1976. The Gershwin tribute’s success prompted further composer salutes. The 1978 special Steve and Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin captured seven Emmys, among them Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Program (Special or Series) awarded to Gorme and Lawrence as performers along with the producers and executive producers.
Recording activity diminished in the late 1970s and 1980s. Under the pseudonym Parker & Penny the duo placed the single “Hallelujah” on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1979. In 1989 they inaugurated their own GL Music label with the album Alone Together; GL later reissued earlier albums on CD via www.steveandeydie.com. Live performances, however, continued to draw large crowds at Las Vegas venues and prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York and the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles. Between 1990 and 1991 they joined Frank Sinatra on his “Diamond Jubilee” tour marking his 75th birthday and appeared on his 1994 album Duets II. They participated in the mid-1990s lounge-music revival by covering Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” for the 1997 Hollywood Records anthology Lounge-A-Palooza. Las Vegas appearances persisted into the new century; they closed the Circus Maximus showroom at Caesars Palace in September 2000 after a decade of performances there. Their next Las Vegas engagement opened April 29, 2004, at the Wayne Newton Theater of the Stardust Hotel. Eydie Gorme died in Las Vegas in August 2013 at the age of 84.
Albums
