Gaetano Alberto Lombardo was born on June 19, 1902 and died on November 5, 1977. He assembled a band composed of his brothers Carmen, Lebert and Victor, and other musicians from his Canadian hometown of London Ontario. Guy first performed in public with hs brother Carmen at a church lawn party in London Ontario when he was 12 years old. He formed a popular dance band in London Ontario as a teenager, and in November of 1923 he went across Lake Erie to Cleveland Ohio to see if the States would like his music. It was love at first sound in Cleveland, and he played most of his career in the States and New York City. Louis Armstrong was a big fan of Lombardo and his orchestra, which played in the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City from 1929 till 1959. He would start his show by saying the band would be playing 'The Sweetest Music This Side of Heaven.' He is best remembered for his New Year's Eve parties, and his rendition of 'Auld Lang Syne' is still played every New Year's Eve in Times Square at the stroke of midnight.

You can watch a television broadcast that was preserved from the 1957 New Year's Eve with Guy Lombardo >>>