{"id":28701,"date":"2013-12-30T00:05:39","date_gmt":"2013-12-30T08:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=28701"},"modified":"2013-12-21T19:34:33","modified_gmt":"2013-12-22T03:34:33","slug":"sing-auld-lang-syne-new-years-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/sing-auld-lang-syne-new-years-eve\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Sing “Auld Lang Syne” on New Year’s Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is an excerpt from our book, The Wise Book of Whys<\/em><\/a>, available on Kindle<\/a> | Nook<\/a> and in Print<\/a> | Audiobook<\/a><\/div>\n

\"guy-lombardo2\"<\/a>This tradition is mostly 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 records to date. Guy Lombardo himself has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he was once the \u201cDick Clark\u201d of New Years before Clark and his \u201cNew Year\u2019s Rockin\u2019 Eve,\u201d attempting to appeal to younger audiences, started supplanting \u201cMr. New Year\u2019s Eve,\u201d Guy Lombardo.<\/p>\n

It was in 1929 that Guy Lombardo and his band took the stage at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City on New Year\u2019s Eve. Their performance that night was being broadcast on the radio, before midnight Eastern-time on CBS, then after on NBC radio.<\/p>\n

At midnight, as a transition between the broadcasts, the song they chose to play was an old Scottish folk song Lombardo had first heard from Scottish immigrants in Ontario. The song was Auld Lang Syne.<\/p>\n

Previous to this, there are several documented instances of others singing this song on New Year\u2019s Eve, going all the way back to the mid-nineteenth century, but it wasn\u2019t anywhere close to the staple it would soon be after Lombardo\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

The next year, and every year thereafter, all the way to 1976, with Lombardo dying at the age of 75 in 1977, they played it at midnight on New Year\u2019s Eve at first broadcast out on the radio and later on TV. Thanks to \u201cMr. New Year\u2019s Eve\u201d and his band, it\u2019s still tradition to this day.<\/p>\n

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