Why We Sing Auld Lang Syne On New Year's Eve
Ever wonder where the tradition of singing Auld Lang Syne on New Year's Eve comes from?
This tradition is predominantly thanks to Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadian Band. While their work is largely unknown to those born in the last few decades, the band has sold over 300 million accounts to date.
Guy Lombardo himself has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he was once the "Dick Clark" of New Years before Clark and his "New Year's Rockin' Eve", attempting to appeal to younger audiences, started supplanting" Mr. New Year's Eve", Guy Lombardo.
It was in 1929 that Guy Lombardo and his ensemble took the stage at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City on New Year's Eve. Their concert that night was being broadcast on NBC radio.
At midnight, as a transition between the broadcasts, the chant they chose to play was an old Scottish folk song Lombardo had first heard from Scottish immigrants in Ontario. The chant was Auld Lang Syne.
There are several documented instances of others singing this song on New Year's Eve, going all the way back to the mid-nineteenth century, but it wasn't anywhere close to the staple it would soon be after Lombardo's performance.
The next year, and each year thereafter, all the way to 1976, they played it at midnight on New Year's Eve at first broadcast out on the radio and later on TV. Thanks to" Mr. New Year's Eve" and his ensemble, it's still tradition to this day .
We'll be hearing this song a lot tomorrow night, nice post!
I had to look up exactly what the title means in English. Apparently it means "old long since" or "old times" -- from a poem written in the 1700s if one can believe wikipedia. :-)
Happy New Year! Steem to the MOON! :D
Happy New Year all!
Happy New Year!
That's interesting!
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