https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/steve-lawrence-dead-singer-1235845675/

On 3/7/2024 11:58 PM, Bruce wrote:
> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/steve-lawrence-dead-singer-1235845675/

<<His “Portrait of My Love” was a Top 10 hit in 1960. His version of “Go
Away Little Girl,” written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, hit No. 1 on
the charts in 1963 and sold more than a million copies.>>

On 3/8/2024 8:55 AM, DianeE wrote:
> On 3/7/2024 11:58 PM, Bruce wrote:
>> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/steve-lawrence-dead-singer-1235845675/
>
> <<His “Portrait of My Love” was a Top 10 hit in 1960. His version of “Go
> Away Little Girl,” written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, hit No. 1 on
> the charts in 1963 and sold more than a million copies.>>
-------------
I don't know about you guys, but I always found Steve Lawrence to be a
very pleasant pop singer. Kind of like Perry Como--inoffensive and
unpretentious.

Sad to learn he died after suffering from Alzheimer's for the past 5 years.

DianeE wrote:

> On 3/8/2024 8:55 AM, DianeE wrote:
>> On 3/7/2024 11:58 PM, Bruce wrote:
>>> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/steve-lawrence-dead-singer-1235845675/
>>
>> <<His “Portrait of My Love” was a Top 10 hit in 1960. His version of “Go
>> Away Little Girl,” written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, hit No. 1 on
>> the charts in 1963 and sold more than a million copies.>>
> -------------
> I don't know about you guys, but I always found Steve Lawrence to be a
> very pleasant pop singer. Kind of like Perry Como--inoffensive and
> unpretentious.

How do you like this two sider? Is either side offensive?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv3AtMfp63o

On 3/8/2024 5:38 PM, Bruce wrote:
> DianeE wrote:
>
>> On 3/8/2024 8:55 AM, DianeE wrote:
>>> On 3/7/2024 11:58 PM, Bruce wrote:
>>>> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/steve-lawrence-dead-singer-1235845675/
>>>
>>> <<His “Portrait of My Love” was a Top 10 hit in 1960. His version of
>>> “Go Away Little Girl,” written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, hit
>>> No. 1 on the charts in 1963 and sold more than a million copies.>>
>> -------------
>> I don't know about you guys, but I always found Steve Lawrence to be a
>> very pleasant pop singer.  Kind of like Perry Como--inoffensive and
>> unpretentious.
>
> How do you like this two sider? Is either side offensive?
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv3AtMfp63o
-------------
Per Whitburn his first charted record was a 1957 version of the Banana
Boat Song. I don't remember it and I imagine it's pretty awful, but I
always liked "Pretty Blue Eyes" and "Portrait Of My Love."

On 3/8/2024 7:48 PM, DianeE wrote:
> On 3/8/2024 5:38 PM, Bruce wrote:
>> DianeE wrote:
>>
>>> On 3/8/2024 8:55 AM, DianeE wrote:
>>>> On 3/7/2024 11:58 PM, Bruce wrote:
>>>>> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/steve-lawrence-dead-singer-1235845675/
>>>>
>>>> <<His “Portrait of My Love” was a Top 10 hit in 1960. His version of
>>>> “Go Away Little Girl,” written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, hit
>>>> No. 1 on the charts in 1963 and sold more than a million copies.>>
>>> -------------
>>> I don't know about you guys, but I always found Steve Lawrence to be
>>> a very pleasant pop singer.  Kind of like Perry Como--inoffensive and
>>> unpretentious.
>>
>> How do you like this two sider? Is either side offensive?
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv3AtMfp63o
> -------------
> Per Whitburn his first charted record was a 1957 version of the Banana
> Boat Song.  I don't remember it and I imagine it's pretty awful, but I
> always liked "Pretty Blue Eyes" and "Portrait Of My Love."
------------
P.S. I'm not listening to that.

DianeE wrote:

> On 3/7/2024 11:58 PM, Bruce wrote:
>> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/steve-lawrence-dead-singer-1235845675/

> <<His “Portrait of My Love” was a Top 10 hit in 1960. His version of “Go
> Away Little Girl,” written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, hit No. 1 on
> the charts in 1963 and sold more than a million copies.>>

His "Portrait Of My Love" was a cover of the British original

Here's the original

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbfjYyr0ewU

Bruce wrote:

> DianeE wrote:

>> On 3/8/2024 8:55 AM, DianeE wrote:
>>> On 3/7/2024 11:58 PM, Bruce wrote:
>>>> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/steve-lawrence-dead-singer-1235845675/
>>>
>>> <<His “Portrait of My Love” was a Top 10 hit in 1960. His version of “Go
>>> Away Little Girl,” written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, hit No. 1 on
>>> the charts in 1963 and sold more than a million copies.>>
>> -------------
>> I don't know about you guys, but I always found Steve Lawrence to be a
>> very pleasant pop singer. Kind of like Perry Como--inoffensive and
>> unpretentious.

> How do you like this two sider? Is either side offensive?

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv3AtMfp63o

A piece I wrote in 2019 (in response to a Bob Roman post) addresses your question and other points re Steve Lawrence :-

On Sun, 20 Jan 2019 06:17:21 -0800 (PST), Bob Roman
<robert...@gmail.com> wrote:

>Breihan opens 1963 skeeved out by Steve Lawrence...
>
>Steve Lawrence - "Go Away Little Girl"
>HIT #1: January 12, 1963
>STAYED AT #1: 2 weeks
>
>The team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, the married couple responsible for=
> so many of the era's biggest hits, wrote "Go Away Little Girl" for Bobby Vee
> Vee's version of the song is a boring whitebread plod, but he at least =
>sells the song,
>
The dumbest A&R man in the world would have known straight away that
the song "Go Away Little Girl" was hand crafted and 101% tailor made
for Bobby Vee. I believe Vee had first refusal on virtually all of
Carole King's tunes back then. And so when he needed a new single he
and producer Snuff Garrett werre offered three new songs by Carole.

All three were recorded on the same session for Liberty.Snuff and
Bobby decided that "Sharing You" was the strongest cut and so it
became the new single leaving "It Might As Well Rain Until September"
and "Go Away Little Girl" for future use. Both Snuff and Bobby felt
they didn't quite capture "Go Away Little Girl" and were going to
re-record it and release it---but before they could Don Kirshner at
Aldon Music passed the song to Steve Lawrence and the rest is history.
Both "Go Away Little Girl" and "It Might As Well Rain Until
September" appear on Vee's 1963 LP, "The Night Has A Thousand
Eyes"

And so Steve Lawrence scored the very first #1 hit of 1963 following a
recording career that had started in 1952 on the King label leading to
several years with Coral for whom he's waxed a series of truly pitiful
covers of r&r/r&b numbers including "Speedo","The Chicken And The
Hawk","Party Doll" and "Fabulous". More hits followed on ABC-Paramount
("Pretty Blue Eyes","Footsteps") and United Artists ("Portrait Of My
Love").

As can be seen Lawrence was no stranger to the charts but he was a
stranger to the UK chart here with his current US #1 smash----his "Go
Away Little Girl" failed to chart on these shores--- falling foul of a
British cover from Mark Wynter that reached #10 on the UK chart.

As a consolation he did however have much more success over here later
in 1963 when a duet with wifey Eydie Gorme "I Want To Stay Here"
(again penned by Goffin and King and a better song than "Go Away
Little Girl") climbed as high as #5 on a UK chart topped at the time
by The Beatles and "She Loves You"

And no...he DIDN'T go out in Round 1 of the 1962 Singles Battle!!

R1
>16 Steve Lawrence - Go Away Little Girl - Columbia 42601
>11 McKinley Mitchell - The Town I Live In - One-Der-Ful 4804

R2
>11 Steve Lawrence - Go Away Little Girl - Columbia 42601
>17 Dion - Little Diane - Laurie 3134

I liked his performance as the sleazy manager in The Blues Brothers

--
BR