PRETTY BLUE SKIN
Now he’s as lonely as can be, bop bop, bop bop bop bop bop… Crooner Steve Lawrence has died aged 88. Together with his wife Eydie Gormé, he was a long-familiar showbiz face in America who made the rounds in Vegas, nightclubs, and variety/talk programmes such as The Carol Burnett Show and The Tonight Show. In a US pop charts era more favourable to his easygoing stylings (he even had a minor hit way back in 1952), he proved a formidable solo act with top ten hits including romantic swoon “Pretty Blue Eyes” and charttopping Carole King composition “Go Away Little Girl”. The doo-wop-tinged “Footsteps” and Gormé duet “I Want to Stay Here” were his only real chart impacts in the UK.
Though Beatlemania doomed him as a charting force, his showbiz finesse kept his career going for decades – along with the Steve and Eydie act, he was Tony-nominated for What Makes Sammy Run? and played manager to the Blues Brothers. Gormé died in 2013, Lawrence was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2019, and now 20 Crooners Croakin’ puts the band back together with a unique joker.
Steve Lawrence
8 July 1935 – 7 March 2024, aged 88
💀💀💀💀💀💀 + 👻, 🃏 = 20 POINTS