Before Dick Clark, Guy Lombardo Was TV's "Mr. New Year's Eve"

Have you ever wondered why Dick Clark called his perennial special New Year's Rockin' Eve? It's likely because something else was perennial when it started in 1973, and he was trying to counterprogram against "Mr. New Year's Eve" Guy Lombardo and his traditional big band extravaganza.

Lombardo and the Royal Canadians were an American staple starting with the first nationwide New Year's Eve broadcast on the radio in 1929, before coming to CBS televsion in 1956. They popularized the old Scottish tune "Auld Lang Syne" as the first song to play after the stroke of midnight. The dance parties would emanate from the Roosevelt Hotel until 1959, and then from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel until this, his final holiday special before his death in November of 1977. 

Lombardo's performance of "Auld Lang Syne" is still the song that's played in Times Square every New Year's Eve after the ball drops.

Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.