In Loving Memory Of Steve Lawrence After His Death | Reaction

In Loving Memory Of Steve Lawrence After His Death | Reaction
Steve Lawrence, a king among easy-listening crooners who rocketed to fame in the ’50s and ’60s as half of the duo Steve and Eydie, died Thursday at age 88. Lawrence died at home in Los Angeles, and the cause of death was complications from Alzheimer’s disease, according to a spokesperson for the family, Susan DuBow.
Lawrence’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis had finally put an end to his touring career in 2019, after a run in the public eye that spanned six and a half decades.
Lawrence was preceded in death in 2013 by his wife, Eydie Gormé, with whom he enjoyed nearly unparalleled success as a performing couple during their heyday as touring artists and TV stars in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. The couple had continued to tour together through 2009.
His colleagues began to weigh in Thursday. “Steve was one of my favorite guests on my variety show,” Carol Burnett said, “appearing 39 times. He was also my very close friend… so close that I considered him ‘family.’ He will always be in my heart.”
“My Dad was an inspiration to so many people,” his son, David Lawrence, said in a statement. “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. 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.”
Appreciations of Lawrence from friends and contemporaries began to roll in Thursday. “Another longtime friend has made his transition,” said Dionne Warwick. “Steve now has joined his true love, his wife Eydie, and is resting with comfort in the arms of the Heavenly Father. My heartfelt condolences go out to both of his sons and host of friends.”
With or without Gormé, Lawrence was a Grammy winner, an Emmy winner and a Tony nominee, the later nod coming for his portrayal of Sammy Glick in a Broadway production of “What Makes Sammy Run” in 1964. He picked up a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for that same role, which extended across 504 performances of the show.
One of Lawrence’s signature songs as a TV and Las Vegas nightclub performer was “I’ve Gotta Be Me.” The song had its origins in a Broadway musical that he and Gormé starred in together, “Golden Rainbow,” in 1968.
As a solo artist, Lawrence had one song reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962, the Goffin-King composition “Go Away Little Girl” (later re-popularized in the ’70s by Donny Osmond). Altogether he had 33 songs chart between 1952-1966, five of which made Billboard’s top 10.
In an interview, Lawrence explained why he never gravitated toward rock ‘n’ roll, despite coming of age as a recording artist in the early part of the rock era. “It didn’t attract me as much,” he told the website Classicbands.com. “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 Lorenzt Hart and Sammy Cahn and Julie Stein. Those people, I related to what they were writing because it was much more melodic. It as an intelligent lyric that was written. By and large these people were bright, educated or extremely gifted.”
As a couple, Steve and Eydie had fewer chart successes, landing only four charting songs, none of them major hits - yet their chart stats give little indication of just how ubiquitous the pair became as television personalities.
The duo’s joint success began with their first appearances on “The Tonight Show” when it was fronted by Steve Allen in 1954. The pair also had their own summer replacement series, “The Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé Show,” on NBC in 1958.
The solidity of their professional and personal lives notwithstanding, Lawrence regularly worked without Gormé, as an actor as well as a singer. His film roles included parts in “The Blues Brothers,” its sequel “Blues Brothers 2000,” and “Stand Up and Be Counted.
Credits to Daily Mail
Original interview: www.dailymail.co.uk/video/tvsh...

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They💙 were a beautiful song couple🎩🎶