#250: Fabulous by Steve Lawrence

City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CHUM
Peak Month: May 1957
Peak Position in Toronto: #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #71
YouTube: “Fabulous”
Lyrics: “Fabulous”

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 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.

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

“Fabulous” was cowritten by Harry Land (aka Bernie Lowe), and Jon Sheldon (born Kalman Cohen). Born in 1917 in Philadelphia with the given name Bernard Lowenthal, he founded Teen Records in 1955. He took the pseudonyms Bernie Lowe and Harry Land in order to be affiliated with both ASCAP and BMI. In December 1955, his song “Teen Age Prayer” became a Top Ten hit for Gale Storm. In 1956 Lowe/Land met Jon Sheldon (also writing songs credited to Kal Mann) in 1956. The songwriting duo went to work.

In early 1957, “Butterfly” became a Top Ten hit for both Charlie Gracie and Andy Williams. Both Land/Lowe and Sheldon/Mann wrote the song. But their most successful composition was “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear”, a number-one hit for Elvis Presley for seven weeks in the summer of ’57 on the Billboard pop, R&B and Country charts. Another Top Ten hit they penned was “Remember You’re Mine” for Pat Boone in August ’57. In 1959, Bobby Rydell had a #11 hit with “Kissin’ Time”, and a #6 hit with “We Got Love”. While a third hit for Bobby Rydell, “Wild One”, peaked at #2 on the Hot 100 in the USA. A fourth song for Rydell, “Swingin’ School”, peaked at #5 in the summer of 1960. And in 1961, Land/Lowe and Sheldon/Mann scored with another Bobby Rydell number titled “Good Time Baby” which peaked at #11.

Sheldon and Land wrote “Dinner With Drac”, a #6 hit for John Zacherle in 1958. They also wrote the number-one R&B hit, “Mashed Potato Time” for Dee Dee Sharp in early ’62. Harry Land (aka Bernie Lowe) launched the careers of Chubby Checker, Dee Dee Sharp, Bobby Rydell, The Orlons, The Dovells, and The Tymes. He died in 1993 at the age of 75.

Kalman Cohen (Kal Mann/Jon Sheldon) was born in 1917 in Philadelphia. He began his career writing comedy material for Red Buttons and Danny Thomas. In addition to his collaborations with Bernie Lowe (Harry Land), Jon Sheldon (Kal Mann) wrote a Top Ten hit for Bobby Rydell in 1962 titled “The Cha-Cha-Cha”. He subsequently wrote “Slow Twistin'”, “Let’s Twist Again”, “Popeye (The Hitchhiker)”, “Loddy Lo” and “Limbo Rock”, all Top Ten hits for Chubby Checker. For The Dovells, Kal Mann wrote the hit singles the “Bristol Stomp” and “You Can’t Sit Down”. He also wrote “Ride” and “Do The Bird” for Dee Dee Sharp. While for The Orlons, Kal Mann co-wrote the hit singles “South Street”, “Don’t Hang Up” and “The Wah-Watusi”. He died in 2001 at the age of 84 from Alzheimer’s disease.

“Fabulous” is a song that lists a number of physical sensations while making out that ring someone’s bell. 1) Lips close to mine, I get chills up my spine, 2) when we touch, I thrill so much, 3) when I held you tight, I know I’m right. | In a word, the romance is FABULOUS!

Steve Lawrence’s “Fabulous” peaked at #3 in Plattsburgh (NY), #4 in Toronto, #5 in Pittsburgh, #6 in Buffalo, and Farmington (MA), #7 in Edmonton, and #11 in Vancouver and Detroit.

Charlie Gracie also recorded “Fabulous” and his version was a #16 hit in the USA and peaked at #6 in the UK.

In 1959, “(I Don’t Care) Only Love Me”  was a number-one hit 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.

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.

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 the 1970s, he 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.

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

March 1, 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.
“Kal Mann,” Telegraph, December 19, 2001.
“Bernie Lowe: Walk of Fame – Inducted 1993,” Philadelphia Music Alliance, 1993.

CHUM 1050-AM Toronto (ON) Top Ten | May 10, 1957