#26: Real True Lovin’ by Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme

City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: May 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #119
YouTube: “Real True Lovin’”

Sidney Liebowitz was born in 1935 to Jewish parents in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. His father, Max, was a cantor at the Brooklyn synagogue Beth Sholom Tomchei Harav, and his mother, Helen, was a homemaker. During high school, Lawrence skipped school to spend time at the Brill Building in the hopes of being employed as a singer. In 1952 at the age of 16, Lawrence signed a contract with King Records after winning a talent contest on Arthur Godfrey’s CBS TV show. That year he had a #21 hit single credited to Steve Lawrence on the Billboard pop chart titled “Poinciana”. The next year, talk show host Steve Allen hired Lawrence to be one of the singers on Allen’s local New York City late night show on WNBC-TV, with vocalists Eydie Gormé and Andy Williams. The show was chosen by NBC to be seen on the national network, becoming The Tonight Show, and Lawrence, Gormé, and Williams stayed until the program’s end in 1957. Lawrence credited the exposure and experience he gained on Allen’s show for launching his career “I think Steve Allen was the biggest thing that happened to me. Every night I was called upon to do something different. In its own way, it was better than vaudeville.”

He released eleven more singles after “Party Doll”, each failing to crack the Top 40 nationally in the USA. Among these was “Fabulous”.

He also appeared as a guest on The Jonathan Winters Show, The Julius LaRosa Show, The Russ Morgan Show, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, The Patti Page Oldsmobile Show, and The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom. In the late 1950s, Lawrence was drafted into the U.S. Army and served as the official vocal soloist with the United States Army Band “Pershing Own” in Washington, D.C. In 1957, Lawrence covered Harry Belafonte’s “The Banana Boat Song” (Day-O) which reached #18. His cover of Buddy Knox’s number-one song “Party Doll”, reached #5. In the summer of 1958, he co-hosted The Steve Lawrence-Eydie Gormé Show.

Eydie Gormé (born Edith Gormezano in 1928 in The Bronx, NY) was raised in a Sephardic Jewish household. Gormé began her career singing in a band on weekends while working as a translator. She gained prominence after appearing on the radio program Cita Con Eydie and changing her name for easier pronunciation. Gormé’s career took off in the early 1950s, starting with her two-month stint with the Tommy Tucker band, followed by a year with Tex Beneke’s band. She signed with Coral Records in 1952, releasing her first single and later joining The Tonight Show, where she met Steve Lawrence. In 1954, she had a Top 20 hit on the Billboard pop chart with “Fini”. In 1956, the duo had a Top 40 hit with “Too Close For Comfort”, a tune from the Broadway musical Mr. Wonderful. Gormé had another Top 40 hit that year with “Mama, Teach Me to Dance”. In 1957, she had a Top 30 hit in both the USA and UK with “Love Me Forever”. Her followup, “You Need Hands”, reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958.

In 1959, “(I Don’t Care) Only Love Me”  was a number-one hit for Steve Lawrence in Hull (PQ). In late ’59, Lawrence released “Pretty Blue Eyes”. The single was more in the pop style of other teen pop stars, and reached #4 in Canada, #7 in Australia and #9 in the USA. His next release, “Footsteps”, was a #7 hit in the USA, #9 in Norway, and #16 in the Netherlands. In 1961, Steve Lawrence had a #1 hit in the Philippines with “Portrait Of My Love”. The song peaked at #7 in Australia and #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. Lawrence earned a Grammy Award nomination for the song in the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category. In early 1963, “Go Away Little Girl” was a number-one hit in both New Zealand and the USA. That year, Eydie Gormé released her biggest hit single “Blame It On the Bossa Nova”, which climbed to #7 in the Billboard Hot 100.

After “Go Away Little Girl”, Lawrence released over thirty more singles until 1984. However, only two of these cracked the Top 40. He was swept away by the combination of the Surf Sound, Motown and the British Invasion. Though there were occasional hits on the pop charts that were also “adult contemporary”, like “Since I Fell For You” by Lenny Welch, Steve Lawrence held little appeal for the emerging teen audience. Eydie Gormé also struggled and failed to crack the Top 40 on the pop charts. However, in 1966 her recording “If He Walked Into My Life” climbed to #5 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart. For her effort, she received a Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance. And in 1969, “Tonight I’ll Say A Prayer” reached #8 on the same chart. Between 1953 and 1976, Eydie Gormé released over fifty singles. She released forty studio albums, and 35 albums of duets with Steve Lawrence (including compilation albums).

Nonetheless, with his wife Eydie Gormé, Steve Lawrence kept selling out live shows at dinner clubs and on the variety TV show circuit. In 1964, Lawrence was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance as Sammy Glick in What Makes Sammy Run? at the 54th Street Theater on Broadway. A year later, he hosted 13 episodes of The Steve Lawrence Show.

In 1969, Steve & Eydie released “Real True Lovin'” which they sang on The Ed Sullivan Show. The song was written by Clarence Carlson Parks II. He was born in 1936, in Philadelphia. After studying classical music he was part of several folk groups. This included The Steeltown Two, the Southcoasters, the Greenwood Country Singers and the duo Carson and Gaile. He was also with The Easy Riders on three albums between 1959 and 1961.

Carson Parks is in the middle at the front of the railway car

Parks most notable contribution to pop music is “Something Stupid”, which became a number-one hit in 1967 for Frank and Nancy Sinatra. Parks wrote “Cab Driver” which was a Top 30 hit for the Mills Brothers in 1968.

The lyrics to “Real True Lovin'” have the singers’ crying every time they think about love that is the real deal. “Every plan starts with we…”

“Real True Lovin'” peaked at #3 in Senneterre (PQ), #5 in Fredericton (NB), #8 in La Crosse (WI), #15 in Fort Worth (TX).

In the 1970s, Steve Lawrence was a semi-regular on The Carol Burnett Show, appearing on 26 episodes. With Gormé, the pair won the 1979 Emmy for an Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Program for Steve & Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin. The pair appeared regularly on What’s My Line?, I’ve Got a Secret and Password All-Stars, to name just a few.

They were a staple in Las Vegas, headlining Caesars Palace, the Sands, the Sahara and the Desert Inn, etc., and the Las Vegas Entertainment Awards honored them four times as Musical Variety Act of the Year. In 1981, Lawrence realized a lifelong dream when he and his wife performed a series of sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall.

“They are both confident, full-throated singers who show the kind of assured stage presence that can come from years of playing to Las Vegas audiences,” John S. Wilson wrote in his review for The New York Times. “Mr. Lawrence, like so many singers who work in that milieu, uses singing mannerisms that owe a great deal to Frank Sinatra…”

Steve Lawrence was also in film, playing the character Maury Sline in The Blues Brothers (1980), and again in Blues Brothers 2000 (1998). He also was a guest on many TV shows, including Frazier, The Dean Martin Show, Sanford and Son, Murder She Wrote, Hardcastle and McCormick, Here’s Lucy, The Ed Sullivan Show, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 13 episodes of The Garry Moore Show, 9 episodes of The Mere Griffin Show, The Joan Rivers Show, Th Judy Garland Show, The Pearl Bailey Show, The Bob Hope Show, 52 episodes of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and more.

Eydie Gormé died in 2013 at the age of 84. Over his career, Steve Lawrence released nearly 70 studio albums. In March 2024, Steve Lawrence died at the age of 88.

In 1960, the duo received a Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group. This was for the album We Got Us with Steve Lawrence. In 1995, the duo was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. That year they also had received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award. For their television specials, the pair received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Music or Comedy Special, Our Love Is Here to Stay with Steve Lawrence, 1976. Subsequently, they received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Music or Comedy Special, Steve and Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin with Steve Lawrence, in 1979

July 26, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Chris Koseluk, “Steve Lawrence, Grammy-Winning Pop Stylist and Actor, Dies at 88,” Hollywood Reporter, March 7, 2024.
John S. Wilson, “Pop: Steve and Eydie at Carnegie,” New York Times, June 16, 1981.
“Eydie Gorme, Voice of Sophisticated Pop, Dies at 84,” New York Times, August 11, 2013.
“C. Carson Parks: Author of ‘Something Stupid’,” The Independent, June 28, 2005.

CFNB 550-AM Fredericton (NB) Top 20 | May 31, 1969