Eydie Gorme dies at 84; pop singer did 'Blame It on the Bossa Nova'
Often with husband Steve Lawrence, Eydie Gorme sang at clubs and on television, including on Steve Allen's 'Tonight' show.
Eydie Gorme, a pop vocalist who entertained nightclub audiences and TV viewers as a solo artist and with her husband, Steve Lawrence, died Saturday. She was 84.
Gorme died at a Las Vegas hospital of an undisclosed illness, said her publicist, oward Bragman.
Since the mid-1950s, first as a soloist and then as part of the Steve and Eydie duo, Gorme sang pop hits, standards and show tunes while decked out in sequins and engaging in playful stage patter.
Her first album with Lawrence, "We Got Us," won a Grammy Award in 1960. The two also recorded separately, he making Billboard's top 10 with "Go Away Little Girl" in 1962 and she having a hit with "Blame It on the Bossa Nova" in 1963 and winning a Grammy for "If He Walked into My Life" in 1966. Together they starred in the Broadway musical "Golden Rainbow" in 1968.
"Eydie has been my partner onstage and in life for more than 55 years," Lawrence said in a statement. "I fell in love with her the moment I saw her and even more the first time I heard her sing. While my personal loss is unimaginable, the world has lost one of the greatest pop vocalists of all time."
Gorme (pronounced Gor-MAY) had been a singer with the Tex Beneke Band when Steve Allen hired her for his New York variety TV show in 1953. Lawrence was also part of the show's ensemble, and the two sang and acted in comedy sketches. They made the leap with Allen when his "Tonight" show was picked up by the NBC network in 1954, and for three years they were regulars on the late-night hit.
In 1957 Gorme appeared with comedian Jerry Lewis at the Palace Theatre on Broadway and with comic Joe E. Brown in Las Vegas. That December she married Lawrence in Las Vegas. They returned to television in 1958 with "The Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme Show" before Lawrence was called to the Army.
While he served for two years, she performed on her own, and upon his discharge in 1960 they resumed their professional partnership, billing themselves as Steve and Eydie.
"What has been the nature of their success?" Allen said in a 1996 Times story. "First, the fact that they are a couple has something to do with it. Secondly, they are damned good singers. And thirdly — this has both hurt and helped them — they concentrated for the most part on good music. This lost them the youthful audience, who prefer crap to Cole Porter's music. But it endeared them to people with sophisticated taste."
Gorme was born Aug. 16, 1928, in the Bronx, N.Y., to Sephardic Jewish immigrants. Her father was a tailor from Sicily and her mother was from Turkey. Before her singing career took off, Gorme worked as a Spanish-language interpreter.
In the mid-1960s she was pitched the idea of a Spanish-language recording. "Amor" and a follow-up album with the Mexican group Trio Los Panchos became hits in the U.S. and Latin America.
Gorme and Lawrence continued to perform on television variety shows, winning an Emmy for the 1978 special "Steve and Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin," and on tour as a duo and opening for Frank Sinatra and others.
Filmography
Soundtrack (28 credits)
2012-2013 Call the Midwife (TV Series) (performer - 2 episodes)
- Episode #2.1 (2013) ... (performer: "Love Me Forever" - uncredited)
- Baby Snatcher (2012) ... (performer: "Love Me Forever" - uncredited)
2012 Girl in Progress (performer: "Sabor A Mi")
2011 Gent de paraula (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode)
- Episode #2.7 (2011) ... (performer: "Historia de un Amor")
2008/I Doubt (performer: "Blame It on the Bossa Nova")
2007 American Masters (TV Series documentary) (performer - 1 episode)
- Carol Burnett: A Woman of Character (2007) ... (performer: "If You Feel Like Singing, Sing" - uncredited)
2006 Big Love (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode)
- Eviction (2006) ... (performer: "Blame It on the Bossa Nova")
2001 Russian Doll (performer: "Frenesí")
2001 The West Wing (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode)
- Bartlet's Third State of the Union (2001) ... (performer: "Blame it on the Bossa Nova")
1999 Southpaw (Documentary) (performer: "Round Midnight")
1998 Così ridevano (performer: "Blame It on the Bossa Nova")
1998 Great Expectations (performer: "Bésame Mucho" - as Eydie)
1995 Sinatra: 80 Years My Way (TV Special documentary) (performer: "Medley of Frank Sinatra Songs" - uncredited)
1990 Sinatra 75: The Best Is Yet to Come (TV Special documentary) (performer: "When You're Smiling", "Young at Heart", "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" - uncredited)
1990 Mermaids (performer: "Blame It on the Bossa Nova")
1989 The Big Picture (performer: "Blame It on the Bossa Nova" - as Eydie Gorme)
1986 Life with Lucy (TV Series) (performer: "Life With Lucy Opening Theme")
1985 Alice in Wonderland (TV Movie) (performer: "How d'you do, Shake Hands", "The Walrus and the Carpenter")
1980 Falling in Love Again (performer: "The First Time")
1976 Nosotros que fuimos tan felices (performer: "Nosotros")
1973 Here's Lucy (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode)
- Lucy, the Peacemaker (1973) ... (performer: "If He Walked Into My Life", "Together (Wherever We Go)")
1972 The Carol Burnett Show (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode)
- Episode #5.21 (1972) ... (performer: "A House Is Not a Home")
1969 The Kraft Music Hall (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode)
- What It Was, Was Love (1969) ... (performer: "What It Was, Was Love", "What You Say", "A Secret Place", "Yeah, But What If?", "A Man", "Boys And Girls", "There Goes The Bride", "To Be In Love", "We Had It All", "The Room With The View Inside", "Old Man", "What It Was, Was Love/Reprise")
1966 The Ed Sullivan Show (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode)
- Ricky Nelson, Duke Ellington, Maria Cole, Eydie Gorme, Jo Anne Worley, George Kirby, Robert Bob King (1966) ... (performer: "What Did I Have That I Don't Have?", "I Feel So Spanish" - uncredited)
1963 Juke Box Jury (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode)
- Beatles Special (1963) ... (performer: "I Can't Stop Talking About You")
1960 The Facts of Life (performer: "The Facts of Life")
1958 The Milton Berle Show (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode)
- Eydie Gorme, Walter Pidgeon (1958) ... (performer: "Johnny One Note", "My Buddy")
1958 The Frank Sinatra Show (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode)
- Eydie Gorme (1958) ... (performer: "When Your Lover Has Gone", "The Gypsy in My Soul", "Saturday Night Is the Loneliest Night of the Week" - uncredited)
1957 Until They Sail (performer: "Until They Sail")
Actress (9 credits)
2001 Ocean's Eleven
Boxing Spectator (as Eydie Gorme)
1998 American Express: Grand Canyon (Video short)
1995 The Nanny (TV Series)
Eydie Gormé
- Canasta Masta (1995) ... Eydie Gormé (as Eydie Gorme)
1994 Frasier (TV Series)
Lois
- Frasier Crane's Day Off (1994) ... Lois (voice)
1994 Empty Nest (TV Series)
Heckler
- Half That Jazz (1994) ... Heckler
1985 Alice in Wonderland (TV Movie)
Tweedledee (as Eydie Gorme)
1975 Sanford and Son (TV Series)
Eydie
- Earthquake II (1975) ... Eydie (as Eydie)
1970 The Tim Conway Comedy Hour (TV Series)
Various
- Steve Allen, Eydie Gormé (1970) ... Various
1969 The Kraft Music Hall (TV Series)
The Girl
- What It Was, Was Love (1969) ... The Girl
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