Marty Roberts of beloved L.A. lounge act Marty & Elayne dies at 89

Marty Roberts, one half of the irrepressible, crowd-pleasing lounge duo Marty & Elayne — the beloved L.A. partnership that serenaded everyone from Frank Sinatra to Nicolas Cage and stole the 1996 film “Swingers” out from under Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau — died from cancer on Thursday. But Marty has guts — he was never afraid of anything.” To Sinatra he sang “That’s Life.” To Elayne, she told The Times, he often sang Frank’s “All My Tomorrows”. A new young crowd was coming to the plush nightclub, especially after the couple appeared in a 1990 Tom Petty video, “Yer So Bad,” and they made the most of the culture clash, singing jazz tunes — always Marty’s true love — and cocktail classics, but mixing it up with Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” and whatever else they felt the room could bear. “I wouldn’t stand in the rain.” The lines disappeared but Marty & Elayne played on, for celebrity fans and tourists, bachelorette parties and jazz aficionados, night after night, for decades.