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Steve Lawrence, crooner who formed pop duo with wife Eydie, dies at 88

As a solo performer, he popularized the standards “Go Away Little Girl” and “I’ve Gotta Be Me.”

Steve Lawrence, a creamy-voiced pop crooner who popularized the standards “Go Away Little Girl” and “I’ve Gotta Be Me” and formed a crowd-pleasing act with his wife, Eydie Gormé, for more than five decades, died March 7 at his home in Los Angeles. Mr. Lawrence’s signature song was the million-selling Gerry Goffin-Carole King composition “Go Away Little Girl”(1962), in which the singer halfheartedly pleads with an attractive woman to stay away so that he will not betray his steady girlfriend. Mr. Lawrence earned greater critical attention on Broadway with “What Makes Sammy Run?” (1964), a musical adaptation by composer Ervin Drake of Budd Schulberg’s scathing novel about Hollywood and ambition.

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