Singer Eydie Gorme dies aged 84

Eydie Gorme, a popular nightclub and television singer as a solo act and with her husband, Steve Lawrence, has died. She was 84.

Gorme, who had a huge solo hit in 1963 with Blame It On The Bossa Nova, died yesterday at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas following a brief illness, said her publicist, Howard Bragman.

She was a successful band singer and nightclub entertainer when she 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. When the programme became NBC’s Tonight Show in 1954, the young couple went with it.

They married in Las Vegas in 1957 and later performed for audiences there. Lawrence, the couple’s son David and other loved ones were by her side when she died, Mr Bragman said.

“Eydie has been my partner on stage 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.”

Although usually recognised for her musical partnership with Lawrence, Gorme broke through on her own with the Grammy-nominated Blame It On The Bossa Nova.

The tune about a dance craze of the time was written by the Tin Pan Alley songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

Her husband had had an equally big solo hit in 1962 with Go Away Little Girl, written by the songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

Gorme and Lawrence had a long-lasting career, encompassing recordings and appearances on TV, in nightclubs and in concert halls.

Gorme, who was born in New York City, began to seriously consider a music career while still a student at school in the Bronx.

After graduation, she worked as a Spanish interpreter for a time but also sang at weekends with the band of Ken Greenglass, who encouraged her and eventually became her manager.