Eydie Gorme, popular singer, dies at 84

Sunday, August 11, 2013

This June 11, 2009 file photo shows actress Karen Black, a cast member in Irene in Time, at the premiere of the film in Los Angeles.

In this May 30,1998 file photo, Eydie Gorme arrives at the black-tie gala called "Thanks Frank" honoring Frank Sinatra in Las Vegas. The singer died Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013 from an undisclosed illness. She was 84. (AP Photo / Chris Pizzello)

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By BOB THOMAS

LOS ANGELES -- Eydie Gorme, a popular nightclub and television singer as a solo act and as a team with husband Steve Lawrence, has died. She was 84.

Gorme had a huge solo hit in 1963 with "Blame it on the Bossa Nova." Her publicist, Howard Bragman, says she died at a Las Vegas hospital Saturday following an undisclosed illness.

Gorme was a successful band singer and nightclub entertainer when she was invited to join the cast of Steve Allen's New York television show in 1953.

She sang solos and also did duets and comedy skits with Lawrence, a rising young singer who had joined the show a year earlier. When the program became NBC's "Tonight Show" in 1954, the young couple went along.

They married in Las Vegas in 1957 and later performed there.