Eydie Gormé

Career After high school, Gormé worked as a Spanish interpreter, and on weekends she sang in a band led by Ken Greengrass.

She appeared on the Spanish-language radio program Cita Con Eydie (A Date with Eydie), changing her name from "Edith" to "Edie" and then "Eydie" because people mispronounced "Edie". She considered changing her last name, but her mother told her, "It's bad enough that you're in show business. How will the neighbors know if you're ever a success?"

Gormé sang with the Tommy Tucker band for two months in 1950, followed by a year with Tex Beneke's band. She signed as a solo act with Coral Records in 1952 and released her first single, "That Night of Heaven". She was hired by The Tonight Show in its early days with Steve Allen and formed a duo with another one of its staff singers, Steve Lawrence. As The Tonight Show was beginning to broadcast across the country in 1954, the duo released their first single, "Make Yourself Comfortable"/"I've Gotta Crow".

In 1963, she reached the top 10 in the U.S. with "Blame It on the Bossa Nova". The song earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Vocal Performance The album Blame It on the Bossa Nova entered the top 40. She also had four more hit singles during the same year. Two were recorded as the duo Steve and Eydie. She recorded the Spanish albums Amor and More Amor with the Trio Los Panchos, then she turned to show tunes. "If He Walked into My Life" was an easy-listening hit in 1966 and earned her a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Their last hit on the pop chart was the song "We Can Make It Together" with the Osmonds in 1973.

Gormé was successful in the Latin music market and internationally through albums she recorded in Spanish with the Trio Los Panchos. Her first recording with Los Panchos came about after the popular group with members from Mexico and Puerto Rico, composed of Alfredo Gil, Chucho Navarro, and Johnny Albino, saw her perform at Manhattan's Club Copacabana late in 1963. Gormé had achieved international fame from the song "Blame it on the Bossa Nova", which sold 250,000 copies in Spanish in addition to sales in English. Los Panchos were the top bolero singers in Latin America, so when they suggested a recording, Columbia agreed.

In 1964, Columbia released the album Amor, which spent 22 weeks on the charts. The song "Sabor a Mí" became one of Gormé's signature tunes. In 1965, a sequel appeared called More Amor, later reissued as Cuatro Vidas. Her last album with Los Panchos was Navidad Means Christmas (1966), later reissued as Blanca Navidad. She recorded other Spanish albums in her career, including the Grammy-nominated La Gormé (1976).

Steve and Eydie performed a tribute to George Gershwin on their television special Our Love Is Here to Stay, which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Music or Comedy Special. Two years later they sang on Steve and Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin and again won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Music or Comedy Special. In 1989, they started the record label GL Music. They sang with Frank Sinatra on his 70th-birthday tour and on his album Duets II (1994). They recorded a cover version of the song "Black Hole Sun" by the rock band Soundgarden for the album Lounge-A-Palooza (1997).

Personal life Gormé and Lawrence had two sons. David Nessim Lawrence (b. 1960) is an ASCAP Award-winning composer who composed the score for High School Musical. Michael Robert Lawrence (1962–1986) died at the age of 23 of ventricular fibrillation from an undiagnosed heart condition. She was interred at Hillside Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.

Lawrence issued a statement: "Eydie has been my partner on stage and in my life for more than 55 years. 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."

In popular culture Gormé was portrayed by Victoria Jackson in the popular Saturday Night Live skit "The Sinatra Group" in tandem with Mike Myers portraying her husband Steve Lawrence.

Awards and honors Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group, We Got Us with Steve Lawrence, 1960 Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance, "If He Walked Into My Life", 1966 Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award, 1995 Inducted with Steve Lawrence into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, winning the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award, 1995 Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Music or Comedy Special, Our Love Is Here to Stay with Steve Lawrence, 1976 Blame It on the Bossa Nova (+ 2 bonus tracks) (2002) Tonight I'll Say a Prayer/It Was a Good Time (2005) Don't Go to Strangers/Softly as I Leave You (2012) Since I Fell for You (+ 5 bonus tracks) (2014) An American Treasure (2015)

With Steve Lawrence

Steve & Eydie (1958) We Got Us (1960) Sing the Golden Hits (1960) Our Best to You (1961) Cozy (1961) Two on the Aisle (1962) Steve & Eydie at the Movies (1963) That Holiday Feeling (1964) Steve & Eydie Together on Broadway (1967) Bonfa & Brazil with Luis Bonfa (1967) Golden Rainbow (1968) Real True Lovin' (1969) What It Was, Was Love (1969) A Man and a Woman (1970) This Is Steve & Eydie (1971) This Is Steve & Eydie, Vol. 2 (1972) The World of Steve & Eydie (1972)(2009) Feelin' (1972) Songs by Steve & Eydie (1972) Steve & Eydie Together (1975) Our Love Is Here to Stay (1976) Together Forever (1984) Hallelujah (1984) Through the Years (1985) Alone Together (1990) Happy Holidays (1990) Steve & Eydie and Friends Celebrate Gershwin (1990) Steve & Eydie and Friends Celebrate Porter (1990) Steve & Eydie and Friends Celebrate Berlin (1990) Together on Broadway/Two on the Isle (2001) To You from Us (2009) Cozy/A Man & a Woman (2013) Cozy/Two on the Isle (2013) Great American songbook (2013) Original Hits (2024)

With Trio Los Panchos Amor (Great Love Songs in Spanish) (1964) More Amor (1965) Navidad Means Christmas (1966) Cuatro Vidas (1970)

Filmography The Kraft Music Hall (1 episode, 1969) as an unnamed girl The Tim Conway Comedy Hour (1 episode, 1970) as herself Here's Lucy (1 episode, 1973) as herself Sanford and Son (1 episode, 1975) as herself Alice in Wonderland (television movie, 1985) as Tweedle Dee Life with Lucy (13 episodes, 1986) as co-writer and singer of the theme song Empty Nest (1 episode, 1994) as an unnamed heckler Frasier (1 episode, 1994) as the voice of Lois The Nanny (1 episode, 1995) as herself Ocean's Eleven (movie, 2001) as herself

Music samples