August 10: Pop singer Eydie Gorme’ died on this date in 2013…

-----

... she was 84-years-old when she passed away in Las Vegas following a brief, undisclosed illness.

Born in The Bronx, New York, Gormé and Steve Lawrence - whom she married in 1957- were best known for their on stage banter, which usually involved bawdy references to their married life. Soon after their marriage, the pair had landed their own TV program, "The Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme Show."

Gormé had success as a single performer, also. Gorme broke through on her own in 1963 with the Grammy-nominated "Blame it on the Bossa Nova." The bouncy tune about a dance craze of the time written by the Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. It sold over one million copies.

-----

Gorme, was born Edith Gormezano on Aug. 16, 1928. She seriously considered a music career while still a student at William Taft High School in New York City's borough of the Bronx, where she had been voted the "Prettiest, Peppiest Cheerleader."

The daughter of Turkish and Spanish parents, she grew up speaking Spanish at home. After graduation, she worked as a Spanish interpreter for a time but also sang on weekends with the band of Ken Greenglass, who encouraged her and eventually became her manager.

Her first big break came when she landed a tour with the Tommy Tucker band, and she followed that up with gigs with Tex Beneke, Ray Eberle and on radio and television. Among her radio appearances was one on a Spanish language show, Cita Con Eydie (A Date with Eydie), which was beamed to Latin America by Voice of America.

Gorme' was invited to join the cast of Steve Allen's local New York television show in 1953. She sang solos and also did duets and comedy skits with Lawrence, a rising young singer who had joined the show a year earlier.

Gorme, grew up speaking both English and Spanish. When she and her husband were at the height of their career as a team in 1964, she made a recording in Spanish; the result was "Amor," recorded with the Mexican combo Trio Los Panchos. The song became a hit throughout Latin America.

Throughout their careers, Steve & Eydie  stuck for the most part with the music of classic composers like Berlin, Kern, Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and other giants of Broadway and Hollywood musicals. For the most part they avoided performing rock 'n' roll songs.

Throughout their careers, they appeared at nightclubs in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Las Vegas. When nightclubs dwindled in popularity in the 1980s, they moved their act to large theaters and auditoriums, drawing not only older audiences but also the Baby Boomers who had grown up on rock 'n' roll. They continued to perform together until recently.

-----

"Eydie has been my partner on stage and in life for more than 55 years," Steve 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."

-----

For more about Eydie, visit their Website at –

http://www.steveandeydie.com/

####