It’s a sad day for the music world. Steve Lawrence, a popular singer who performed with his wife as Steve & Eydie, has died at age 88.
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Lawrence’s longtime publicist confirmed the singer’s passing. Lawrence passed away from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease. His son David shared a statement on his father’s legacy and the impact that he had in the industry.
“My dad was an inspiration to so many people,” David shared with People. “But, to me, he was just this charming, handsome, hysterically funny guy who sang a lot. Sometimes alone and sometimes with his insanely talented wife.”
His son continued, “I am so lucky to have had him as a father and so proud to be his son. My hope is that his contributions to the entertainment industry will be remembered for many years to come.”
Born in 1935, Lawrence found music at an early age. He ended up in show biz thanks to Arthur Godfrey’s TV show. Lawrence won a talent competition and ended up signing with King Records.
“It didn’t attract me as much,” Lawrence once said. “I grew up in a time period when music was written by Irving Berlin and Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin and Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart and Sammy Cahn and Julie Stein. Those people, I related to — what they were writing — because it was much more melodic.”
As a teen, he would run into his future wife Eydie Gormé in New York as well. The two later became friends and much more. In 1953, they both performed together on Steve Allen’s Tonight. From there, Steve & Eydie were born.
“I think Steve Allen was the biggest thing that happened to me,” Lawrence said. “Every night I was called upon to do something different. In its own way, it was better than vaudeville.”
Steve Lawrence Through the Years
The couple married in 1957. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, they toured across America, often appearing on a variety of talk shows.
“We had a chance to get in on the ground floor of rock ‘n’ roll,” he recalled in a 1989 interview. “It was 1957 and everything was changing, but I wanted to be Sinatra, not Rick Nelson. Our audience knows we’re not going to load up on heavy metal or set fire to the drummer — although on some nights we’ve talked about it,” he joked.
Lawrence released dozens of albums throughout his career and also appeared on stage and in film as an actor. He famously stared as Maury Sline in The Blues Brother. Lawrence continued to tour with his wife until she passed in 2013.
“Her range was better than three octaves,” Lawrence told the Los Angeles Times. “She could sing with almost anybody. But she enjoyed singing with me. We were attached at the hip — Steve-and-Eydie. It was like we were one person — to be married that long.”
[Photo by Richi Howell/Redferns]
