Remembering the Songs and Humor of Eydie Gorme

On Sunday we noted with sadness the passing of Eydie Gorme, half of the always happy, always ebullient singing team of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. Through the decades we enjoyed their song stylings, their comedy skits, and their serving as a model of a happy and proud Jewish couple committed to each other for life.

JTA's report included a quote from Steve Allen, host of the show that became The Tonight Show, which regularly featured the duo, on what made them so successful.

“What has been the nature of their success?” Allen said in a 1996 Times story. “First, the fact that they are a couple has something to do with it.

Secondly, they are damned good singers. And thirdly – this has both hurt and helped them – they concentrated for the most part on good music. This lost them the youthful audience, who prefer crap to Cole Porter’s music. But it endeared them to people with sophisticated taste.”

Gorme was born August 16, 1928, in the Bronx, New York, to Sephardic Jewish immigrants. Her father was a tailor from Sicily and her mother was from Turkey. Before her singing career took off, Gorme worked as a Spanish-language interpreter.

We never met Steve and Eydie in person, but they always seemed part of the family, and we followed their appearances on stage, on TV, and in records.

There are so many video clips of Eydie singing by herself and with Steve that we could share, but we settled on the following three:

1. Black and white newsreel footage of their wedding, with Steve in a black hat under the chuppah, and Steve feeding wedding cake to Eydie and to comedian Joe E. Lewis.

2. An audio clip from one of our favorite Steve and Eydie productions, a made-for-TV special called What it Was, Was Love by Gordon Jenkins, a story of a couple who meet, fall in love, marry and grow old together, told entirely in song.

3. An audio recording of Steve and Eydie singing Bashana Ha'ba'ah in Hebrew and English (lyrics and translation below the video), as we look forward to the start of another Jewish New Year.

Enjoy!

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HEBREW LYRICS TRANSLITERATED:
Bashana haba'ah neshev al hamirpeset
Venispor tziporim nodedot
Yeladim bechufsha yesachaku tofeset
Bein habayit ulvein hasadot

Od tireh od tireh
Kama tov yiheyeh
Bashana bashana haba'ah

Anavim adumim yavshilu ad ha'erev
Veyugshu tzonenim lashulchan
Veruchot redumim yisu el eim haderech
Itonim yeshanim ve'anan

Od tireh od tireh
Kama tov yiheyeh
Bashana bashana haba'ah 

TRANSLATION:
Next year we will sit on the porch
And count all the wandering birds
Children on vacation will play catch
Between the house and the fields

You will see how good it will be
Next year

Red grapes will ripen by evening
And be served cold to the table
Pleasant breezes will blow on to the roads
Old newspapers and clouds
 
ENGLISH LYRICS:
Seasons come, seasons go
but people never seem to know
how long it will rain, or it will shine
Let them ask what will be,
it doesn't mean a thing to me,
I know what will be when you're mine.