Eydie Gorme

Eydie Gorme, a traditional pop vocalist, secured footholds in multiple entertainment spheres even though the majority of her professional activity unfolded amid rock's ascendancy. Across two decades stretching from the mid-1950s into the mid-1970s she maintained steady visibility on pop listings while carving an additional lane in Latin pop that began in the 1960s. She performed on television and the Broadway stage, and she ranked among the leading nightclub attractions, regularly topping bills in Las Vegas venues and throughout the United States. For the greater part of her working life she alternated between solo work and collaborations with her husband, Steve Lawrence.

Born Edith Gormezano on August 16, 1931, in the Bronx borough of New York City as the youngest of three children to Sephardic Jewish immigrant parents—her father a tailor originally from Sicily and her mother from Turkey—she grew up in a household where both Spanish and English were spoken and became fluent in each. Early signs of vocal talent led to a radio appearance at age three. During high school she sang with a band directed by friend Ken Greengrass. After graduation she took a post as a Spanish interpreter at the Theatrical Supply Export Company while attending night classes at the City College of New York. Before long she resolved to pursue singing professionally, and Greengrass assumed management duties. In 1950 bandleader Tommy Tucker engaged her for a two-month tour. She next spent a year with Tex Beneke's orchestra before striking out alone. Coral Records signed her in 1952 and issued a run of singles that opened with “That Night of Heaven.” September 1953 brought a regular slot on Steve Allen's late-night program Tonight!, then limited to New York broadcasts; fellow singer Steve Lawrence was already part of the cast. National NBC carriage of the show commenced on September 27, 1954. Around the same period Lawrence and Gorme released their debut duet single, “Make Yourself Comfortable” backed with “I've Gotta Crow” from the Broadway musical Peter Pan.

February 1956 marked her first engagement at New York's prestigious Copacabana. The previous year she had moved to ABC-Paramount, and her second release for the label, “Too Close for Comfort” from the Broadway musical Mr. Wonderful, entered the charts in April 1956 and reached the Top 40. Follow-up “Mama, Teach Me to Dance” also climbed into the Top 40. Three additional chart singles arrived in 1957, the strongest being the Top 40 entry “Love Me Forever,” while two albums—Eydie Gormé and Eydie Swings the Blues—landed inside the Top 20.

Gorme and Lawrence wed on December 29, 1957. After Steve Allen departed Tonight! he introduced a prime-time series whose summer replacement, Steve Allen Presents the Steve Lawrence-Eydie Gormé Show, aired Sunday nights from eight to nine o'clock during July and August 1958. That year Gorme placed three more singles on the charts, the highest-reaching being the Top 20 hit “You Need Hands,” and she added two further Top 20 albums, Eydie Vamps the Roaring '20s and Eydie in Love. Recording and club work continued, yet activity eased somewhat in the late 1950s while the couple began raising a family—their first son, David Lawrence, later became a film composer—and Lawrence completed military service. A return to full momentum came in 1960 via joint club dates and the inaugural full-length duo album We Got Us, whose title track earned the Grammy for Best Performance by a Vocal Group.

Late 1960 brought a shift to United Artists Records, where no hits materialized; by 1962 she had joined Columbia Records. Her first Columbia single, a revival of “Yes My Darling Daughter,” reached the U.K. Top Ten in summer 1962. Stateside momentum resumed early in 1963 with “Blame It on the Bossa Nova,” written by Brill Building team Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, which climbed to the Top Ten and garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Female Vocal Performance. Four additional chart singles followed during the remainder of the year, two of them duets with Lawrence billed simply as Steve & Eydie. Those releases—“I Want to Stay Here” and “I Can't Stop Talking About You,” both penned by Carole King and Gerry Goffin—entered the Top 40, as did the solo album Blame It on the Bossa Nova.

The British Invasion of 1964 overshadowed most 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 in 1965. She also 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 yielded a Top Ten easy-listening hit in 1966 and her first solo Grammy for Best Female Vocal Performance. That same year the 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 but with reduced impact. Solo album Softly, as I Leave You registered inside the Top 100—outpacing the duo album Together on Broadway—and by year's end Columbia issued Eydie Gorme's Greatest Hits, signaling the label's view that peak success lay behind her. Meanwhile Gorme and Lawrence pursued larger ambitions, agreeing to co-star in the Broadway musical Golden Rainbow, an adaptation of Arnold Schulman's play A Hole in the Head featuring a new score by Walter Marks. In advance of the opening, Columbia released Gorme's recording of “How Could I Be So Wrong” from the show, which reached the Easy Listening chart in December 1967. Golden Rainbow premiered on February 4, 1968, ran 385 performances, and closed January 12, 1969. Recording continued for Columbia and Calendar before the pair moved to RCA Victor in 1968. Initial successes there included the duo albums What It Was, Was Love—a Gordon Jenkins concept album—and Real True Lovin' in 1969; that fall Gorme's solo single “Tonight I'll Say a Prayer” charted, followed by a same-titled album in February 1970.

Major labels grew reluctant to retain traditional pop acts by the early 1970s. Gorme and Lawrence remained with RCA Victor through 1971, registering several easy-listening entries, then transferred to MGM Records, which mounted a final effort on behalf of the style with artists including Tony Bennett. Solo album It Was a Good Time appeared in 1971 and duo album The World of Steve & Eydie in 1972, the latter producing a last pop-chart single, “We Can Make It Together” featuring the Osmonds. A handful of singles followed in 1973. After that point Gorme no longer registered on pop charts, though she and Lawrence sustained a loyal audience through club and television engagements. Their 1975 television special Our Love Is Here to Stay, a tribute to George Gershwin, generated an album and captured an Emmy. Gorme then focused on the Latin market, earning a 1976 Grammy nomination for Best Latin Recording for La Gorme on Gala Records and another the following year for Muy Amigos, Close Friends, recorded with Danny Rivera. Occasional English-language recordings continued; in September 1976 she re-entered the Easy Listening chart with “What I Did for Love” from A Chorus Line on United Artists Records. The Gershwin program's success prompted further composer tributes, and the 1978 special Steve and Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin secured 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 ventures grew infrequent in the late 1970s and 1980s. Billing themselves “Parker & Penny,” the couple placed “Hallelujah” on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1979. In 1989 they inaugurated their own GL Music label with the duo album Alone Together; GL later reissued earlier albums on CD via www.steveandeydie.com. Club and television work thrived, filling major rooms such as Las Vegas venues, Carnegie Hall in New York, and the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles. Between 1990 and 1991 they joined Frank Sinatra's “Diamond Jubilee” tour marking his 75th birthday and appeared on his 1994 album Duets II. They participated in the mid-1990s lounge revival by covering Soundgarden's “Black Hole Sun” for the 1997 Hollywood Records compilation Lounge-A-Palooza. Las Vegas performances continued into the new century; they closed the Circus Maximus showroom at Caesars Palace in September 2000 after a decade of shows there and returned in spring 2004, opening April 29 at the Wayne Newton Theater in the Stardust Hotel. Eydie Gorme died in Las Vegas in August 2013 at age 84.