Sixties Singer Steve Lawrence Passed Away at Age 88
Steve Lawrence, the singer and performer who shared the stage with his wife Eydie Gormé, has died at age 88 due to complications caused by Alzheimer’s disease. Steve is best known for the romantic ballad “Go Away Little Girl,“ which he recorded under Columbia Records in 1963. The song topped the Billboard Top 100 Chart as the Number One Song for 2 weeks. .
As the half of the American vocal pop duo Steve & Eydie, the couple were popular as crowd-drawing performers in Las Vegas, in music auditoriums and in television shows. Their singing tandem started in the Steve Allen Show where they sang together as Steve and Eydie.
In the early 1950s, Steve Lawrence became a regular performer in The Steve Allen variety TV show, where he was later joined by then upcoming singer Eydie Gormé. The two became a popular singing tandem in the TV show as they literally made beautiful music together. In 1957,
Steve and Eydie got married and committed to a more serious partnership that bore them two sons. In 2009 Eydie retired and went on to live for 4 more years. She passed away a dew days before her 85th birthday.
How Steve Lawrence Worked His Way Toward a Successful Singing Career
Steve Lawrence was actually born from a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, as Sidney Liebowitz. Steve got his singing talent from his father, a Jewish cantor who led the synagogue’s congregation in prayers and songs. At the age of eight, young Sidney sang in the synagogue but later moved to singing in bars and clubs while still in his mid-teens.
Bent on pursuing a career as a professional singer, Sidney auditioned and won a singing competition in a radio and TV show known as “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.” After performing in Godfrey’s radio show for a week, King Records gave Sydney his initial break as a recording artist as Steve Lawrence. His first record, “Poinciana,” sold more than 100,000 copies, which paved the way for a successful recording career that subsequently led to a regular singing stint in the Steve Allen Variety TV show.