Eydie Gormé

A brassy pop traditionalist with impeccable taste in both songs and delivery for over five decades, Eydie Gormé was a Grammy- and Emmy-winning singer with a prolific career as both a solo artist and with her husband, Steve Lawrence. Alongside him, she rose to fame on "The Tonight Show with Steve Allen" (NBC, 1954-57), and soon found success both as a duo and on her own. While Lawrence preferred the Great American Songbook for his material, Gormé drew from several genres, including Latin music, Broadway standards, and even blues. Between 1957 and 1977, she scored numerous chart hits, including a Top 10 record with the effervescent "Blame It On the Bossa Nova," which earned her a Grammy in 1963. In the 1970s, she and Lawrence produced and appeared in a string of critically acclaimed television tributes to great songwriters like Irving Berlin and George Gershwin, which added a Emmy to her growing list of accolades. Until health problems forced her 2007 retirement, she and Lawrence remained a popular draw at top theaters and smaller venues alike, where they continued to mine the pop, jazz and theater songs of the past with their unique professionalism and charm. Eydie Gorme died in August 2013.