Guy Lombardo

Canadian-born musician Guy Lombardo (1912-1977) was known for his festive approach to New Years' Eve, and his band's performance of eighteenth-century Scots poet Robert Burns's sentimental song Auld Lang Syne quickly became an American tradition.

In his heyday, musician Lombardo created a Big Band sound that was characterized by an exaggerated saxophone vibrato, clipped brass phrases, and a unique vocal styling that was the band leader's own. To generations of Americans, the New Year's Eve radio broadcasts by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians playing "Auld Lang Syne" was an annual tradition. Lombardo's New Year's Eve Party eventually set a record as the longest-running annual special produced on radio, and between 1929 and 1952 Lombardo and the Royal Canadians charted at least one hit per year. Although Lombardo died in 1977, his theme song "Auld Lang Syne" continues to be requested by North American audiences ringing in the new year.

Beginnings

Gaetano Alberto Lombardo was born on June 19, 1902, in London, Ontario, Canada, to Gaetano and Lena Lombardo. Lombardo senior, who had immigrated to Canada from Italy, worked as a tailor, and the family lived on a small house on Queens Avenue in the town of London. Lomardo was the eldest of seven children—five boys and two girls—born between 1902 and 1924. Lombardo's parents demanded that their children not speak Italian at home, believing that they would be better able to integrate into the English-speaking culture of pre-World War I Canada if they were not burdened with a dependence on the Italian language.

Of the Lombardo children, five—Guy, Carmen, Lebert, Victor, and Rose Marie—would establish musical careers. Lombardo once said that his father wanted all his children to have a education in music, and because Guy was the eldest he was given violin lessons. Since the violin player was always the band leader, the young Lombardo was given the role he would continue to play later in life.

Early Gigs

Lombardo's band got its start in 1914 when brother Carmen, playing flute, joined Guy on violin to perform a duet for the local Mother's Club. Eventually brother Lebert joined the group, along with pianist Freddie Kreitzer. On June 22, 1919, the band was scheduled to play its first professional gig at the Lakeview Casino in Grand Bend. After the club's owner refused to give the band members an hour off for dinner—claiming that his customers paid to hear the band perform, not to watch them eat—Lombardo's father took his sons home and advised them to find another line of work. However, the affair smoothed over and within several months the Lombardo brothers had quit school and were working as full-time musicians. They got no argument on that score from their father, who had always told them that "music is a light load to carry."

In the spring of 1923 the Lombardo brothers were hired as the house band for the Hopkins Casino at Port Stanley on Lake Erie. Carmen Lombardo, who was by this time playing the saxophone with a Detroit band, quit so he could rejoin his brothers. After the band started its second season at London, Ontario's Winter Gardens, the 21-year-old Guy decided that the group was wasting its time in Canada. Within a few weeks he obtained the name of a Cleveland, Ohio, booking agent and talked his way into a one-night stand at an Ohio Elk's Club. Meanwhile, he let his friends back in London think he had booked an American vaudeville tour.

Following the band's final performance in London, Ontario, on November 24, 1923, the 10-member group was seen off at the train station by about 100 well-wishers. In spite of the lateness of the hour, many were willing to lose sleep to wish the local band good luck. By the time the band returned to Ontario in 1927 as Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians, Lombardo was poised for success.

Career Heated Up

In the winter of 1923, as Lombardo drove south to Ohio, the odds that his band would make it big were slim. Fiercely competitive, the U.S. music industry was particularly unforgiving of any new talent that had not established a unique, distinctive sound. Although composed of talented musicians, Lombardo's jazz band did not yet have a sound that set it apart from the competition. Recalling advice from heir father, who had urged his sons to play music that people can "sing, hum, or whistle," the three Lombardo brothers began performing dance music with pronounced melodies but without arrangement or improvisation. The music appealed to the well-to-do audiences of the late 1920s, and reportedly to even a few Prohibition-era gangsters.

Although the Lombardo brothers were convinced that, given the competition, they would never succeed by playing beat-heavy, improvisational Dixieland jazz, the other members of the band felt their creative abilities were stifled by switching to dance music. Although they were at first reluctant to go along, the Lombardos won them over. Guy Lombardo was particularly enthusiastic when he discovered that brother Carmen produced a unique tone on the saxophone that blended extremely well with the sound of the band's other two sax players. The result would be money in the bank.