Eydie Gormé was simply incapable of singing a song badly. Case in point – her 1966 Ed Sullivan performance of “What Did I Have That I Don’t Have” from the Broadway musical On A Clear Day You Can See Forever.
Her phrasing is a revelation — she doesn’t just sing Burton Lane’s melody, she inhabits it, bending each line with the intuition of a jazz singer and the emotional precision of a Broadway actress.
Every consonant lands, every breath is placed with intention. Her vocal tone — warm, lustrous, utterly controlled — gives the lyric a genuine ache that most singers only approximate. This is what great singing looks sounds like.
Gormé died on August 10, 2013, at age 84 in Las Vegas after a brief illness. Famous for her solo pop hits and her long career with her husband Steve Lawrence, she passed away just six days before her 85th birthday.
Find more terrific performances from The Ed Sullivan Show on the official YouTube channel.
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