Steve Lawrence, a charismatic, smooth-voiced crooner who thrived for decades performing standards as a solo act and with his wife, Eydie Gorme, while rock ‘n’ roll exploded around him, died Thursday. He was 88. His son David said that he died at home in Los Angeles and that the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, the Washington Post reports. Remaining a bystander at the birth of the new music was a choice, Lawrence recalled in 1989. “We had a chance to get in on the ground floor of rock ‘n’ roll,” he said. “It was 1957 and everything was changing, but I wanted to be Sinatra, not Ri…