Steve Lawrence, a creamy-voiced pop crooner who popularized the songs “Go Away Little Girl” and “I’ve Gotta Be Me” and established a crowd-pleasing duet with his wife, Eydie Gormé, for more than five decades, died on March 7 at his Los Angeles home. He was 88. According to his son David Lawrence, the cause was complications from Alzheimer’s illness.
Mr. Lawrence and his wife, known as “Steve and Eydie,” were a familiar sight on recordings, television variety shows, and in nightclubs from Las Vegas to the Catskills. Mr. Lawrence, with his youthful good looks and confident grin, and Gormé, with her raven bouffant and beaded, feathered gowns, exuded an endearing playfulness. They would finish one other’s sentences and rib each other in their sharp-tongued exchanges.
The Duo of Steve and Eydie
In their later years, Steve and Eydie were regarded as the last of the “tux and gown” acts, strict interpreters of popular standards who avoided rock and contemporary popular music. Their TV programs, including the Emmy Award-winning “Steve & Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin” in 1978, were frequently songbook-themed.
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Among their best-known duets were “Make Yourself Comfortable” (1954); “We Got Us” (1960), a Grammy Award-winning album of jazz-pop-Tin Pan Alley songs; “I Want to Stay Here” (1963); and “I Can’t Stop Talking About You” (1963).
In the interim, each pursued a significant solo career. Record companies attempted to promote Mr. Lawrence as an adolescent idol with a clean-shaven image by releasing early hits including “Pretty Blue Eyes” (1959) and “Footsteps” (1960). The million-selling Gerry Goffin-Carole King composition “Go Away Little Girl” (1962), in which the vocalist humbly begs an alluring woman to abstain so that he may not betray his devoted girlfriend, was Mr. Lawrence’s signature track. He was also nominated for a Grammy in 1961 for the successful ballad “Portrait of My Love.”
As musical preferences evolved at an accelerated rate, the couple’s collective and individual chart performances started to diminish. However, Mr. Lawrence quickly discovered his calling as an interpreter modeled after Frank Sinatra, which was accomplished through a string of albums arranged by big band titan Don Costa.
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The Notorious Achievements of the Couple
Three television specials, including homages to the Gershwins, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin, were produced and starred in by Lawrence and his wife. These productions garnered the duo several Emmy Awards. In the 1980s, the couple performed a series of Carnegie Hall concerts that were sold out, and in the 1990s, they accompanied Frank Sinatra on a national tour.
Lawrence is survived by numerous devoted nieces, nephews, friends, and enduring admirers in addition to his brother Bernie, son David, daughter-in-law Faye, granddaughter Mabel, and brother Bernie. He was a devoted husband, proud father, adoring grandfather, and exceptionally gifted performer.
His wife Eydie, who passed away in 2013, and his son Michael, who passed away in 1986, both preceded him in death.