Pinoys’ memories of Eydie Gorme

Eydie Gorme died last Aug. 10, only six days shy of what would have been her 85th birthday.  I do not know if her name still rings a bell out here nowadays. It has been quite a while since she has made the charts or been in the news. Perhaps only for those who recall hit songs from ’60s and ’70s remember Eydie.

I heard though that she remained active doing shows in the States until a few years ago when she finally chose to retire.  Her later performances were mostly in partnership with her husband, the balladeer Steve Lawrence. First hint of recognition. Yes. She was that Eydie who was married to Lawrence.

The couple started out as regular performers in the Tonight Show hosted by Steve Allen and later became popular music and TV stars. They performed as Steve & Eydie and she was the Eydie mentioned in the last line of his big hit, The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me.  He goes “Eydie, you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Lawrence is a singing star and actor with a successful solo career. He popularized many classic ballads like Go Away Little Girl, Pretty Blue Eyes, Footsteps, Portrait of My Love, My Claire De Lune, In Time, More and others.

Eydie also had her share of solo hits.  It was her irrepressible vocals that made Blame It On The Bossa Nova a big seller in the early ’60s. So that was Eydie. She also did the most popular version of the love song from the musical Mame, If He Walked Into My Life. 

I also liked her teen-targeted ballad Mem’ries And Souvenirs. And she did a lot of standards, Moon River, Love Is Blue, One Note Samba. While other female singers imparted angst while doing the oldies, Eydie’s singing style was relaxed and sparkled.

The song though that Pinoy’s will always remember Eydie for is It Takes Too Long To Learn To Live Alone. Oh yes. That was Eydie. That was the song that goes, “...a year has passed/ I thought by now that I could make a new life of my own/ but habits are so hard to break/ I think of you and I still ache/ it takes too long to learn to live alone…” It was the ultimate break-up song of the ’70s.

The song was a unique case. It was not a hit in the US or other countries and was made available on singles only here in the Philippines. I do not even know if her album Gorme, Country Style, that contained this song was ever released here. But I did see a lot of 45RPMs around of It Takes Too Long with Touch The Wind on the flipside. The sentimental Pinoy picked that tune out for himself.

Eydie’s most successful recordings though both featured her with other artists. One is the Steve & Eydie series of albums that she did with Lawrence. There is something so happy in the way they sound together one cannot help but enjoy listening to their songs. This Could Be The Start of Something Big was their signature song. They also did excellent versions of Baby It’s Cold Outside, And The Angels Sing, Side by Side, I Remember It Well.

Then there was Eydie en Español in albums that she recorded with the Trio Los Panchos. There was a time when Spanish singing groups were very popular everywhere, including here in the Philippines. And the Trio Los Panchos were the biggest of them all with hits like Historia De Un Amor and El Reloj. They became even bigger when somebody came up with the idea of Eydie singing with them.

The trio’s mellow, guitar-backed style combined with Eydie’s easy, pop vocals spelled magic for the old boleros. Their recordings of Amor, Noche de Ronda, Caminito, Ultima Noche, Piel Canela, of course, Historia De Un Amor and others are considered masterpieces. You can listen to their songs and feel their sound so new and very current although those were made 50 years ago.

That is how it is with great art and the artists who create them. They remain timeless and beautiful. Eydie Gorme was one of them.