New Year's Eve 1957

Here's an old kinescope of Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians celebrating New Year's Eve 1957. Originally 45 minutes in length, it has been edited down to just under 10. Happy 1958 (and Happy 2009 too)!

Auld Lang Syne

Tonight all across the world, Auld Lang Syne will be played as part of the New Year's celebration. Ever stop to wonder why it's played on New Year's Eve? Or for that matter what an Auld Lang Syne is? Well, wonder no more! Today I present Mr. Mike's Guide to Auld Lang Syne:

Old lang what?
Auld Lang Syne is a poem written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1788. The literal translation of the title is "old long since" but colloquially it means "long, long ago" or "days gone by".

Why New Year's Eve?

The poem was set to the tune of an old Scottish folk song and it became the custom to sing it at Hogmanay (the Scottish New Year celebration). Since the song is about looking back to times past it seems particularly apropos to sing on the last night of the year.

OK, but why does the rest of the world sing it?

The tradition of singing the song spread throughout the British Isles. Canadian-born band leader Guy Lombardo first heard the song played by Scottish immigrants in his hometown of London, Ontario. When he and his brothers formed a band, the song became part of their New Year's Eve repertoire and was played for the first time on December 31, 1929 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians performed at the hotel every New Year's Eve until 1959. They then switched venue to the Waldorf Astoria and continued to perform there until 1978 (a year after Guy's death). The New Year's Eve performances (first over radio and then television) were a tradition for half a century. Guy's version of Auld Lang Syne is still played in Time's Square when the ball drops at midnight.

I'd love to sing along!

There are a number of verses to the song and the lyrics vary; following are the most common first verse and chorus:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

And days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne

We'll take a cup of kindness yet

For auld lang syne

There you have it. Everything you need to know about Auld Lang Syne.

Let's Start The New Year Right...

Today Bing Crosby asks the musical question "How can our love go wrong if we start the New Year right?"

Written by Irving Berlin for the 1942 Paramount Pictures musical, Holiday Inn (starring Bing and Fred Astaire), Let's Start The New Year Right was released as the A side of White Christmas (also featured in the film).

Countdown to 2009

I can't believe it's been a week since my last blog; to paraphrase Bob Cratchit, "I was making rather merry". The operative word being was. I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season (I know I am). After having most of last week off, I'm back at work and things are hectic; much busier than they have the right to be the week between Christmas and New Year's. Well anyway, I couldn't bear the guilt of not posting an entry (I'm a nice Italian Boy from Long Island raised by Catholic parents - I guilt very easily) so I'm offering the above photo of the great Louis Armstrong and Mr. New Year's Eve Guy Lombardo. I'm not sure what they're doing or where/when this photo was taken, but I find it interesting.

Speaking of Guy Lombardo, here's a clip from the 1950's of Guy and His Royal Canadians performing one of their biggest hits, Boo Hoo...

I plan on posting more about Guy (a fellow - former Long Island resident) as the week progresses (depending on how you feel about long-dead big band leaders, you may want to avoid my blog until the beginning of January - you have been warned).

Merry Christmas from Perry Como

My Mother's favorite performer was the popular somnambulant singer, Perry Como. During December in the 1960's, when I wasn't playing Christmas with the Chipmunks, Mom was listening to Perry Como Sings Merry Christmas Music. To this day, it's hard for me to hear Mr. C. sing without thinking of Christmas. Today I offer a clip from Perry's 1958 Christmas Special. This one's for you, Mom.

It's A Wonderful Life...The Ending

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the effect that It's A Wonderful Life has on yours truly; no matter how often I watch this movie (and to be honest, I lost track long ago), I still get a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye during the final moments. Today I present a clip of the final nine minutes of the film. I suppose you could skip ahead to the five minute mark, but it won't hurt to watch the whole thing - it might even do your soul some good.

In case you've been living in a cave and have never heard of the movie, I'll set it up for you. George Bailey, played by James Stewart, is a hard working family man who has sacrificed for others his whole life. On Christmas Eve he becomes despondent (I won't go into details but it involves the loss of $8000 through no fault of his own). He starts to think the world would be better off had he never been born. Enter the apprentice angel Clarence who shows George exactly what the world would be like had he never been in it (among the changes: his war hero brother Harry died as a child since big brother George wasn't around to save him from drowing; his four children were never born; his beloved town of Bedford Falls has become the sleezy, seedy town of Potterville). George begins to realize the effect he's had on the world around him. The clip starts at the scene where George realizes his wife Mary, played by Donna Reed, doesn't recognize him.

Yep, it happened again - I've got the sniffles and tears are rolling down my cheeks as I type this. Frank Capra really knew how to tug at the old heart strings, didn't he?

I'd just like to point out some of the many wonderful character actors in this film. That's the great Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Potter, the film's villain ("Happy New Year to you, in jail"). One of my favorites is Lillian Randolph who plays Annie ("I've been saving this money for a divorce if ever I get a hysband..."). Fans of Old Time Radio will recognize her as Birdie, the housekeeper on (my favorite OTR show) The Great Gildersleeve.

A few actors who are not in this scene are:

Henry Travers as Clarence the Angel

The great Sheldon Leonard as Nick the bartender.

The ubiquitous Charles Lane (perennial grumpy old man of countless TV shows).

Christmas with Alvin and the Chipmunks

Back when I was a just a wee lad, I absolutely adored Alvin and the Chipmunks. I'm talking about the original version created by Ross Bagdasarian in the late 50's, not the 1980's version and not the 2007 Jason Lee live action film. I loved watching repeats of the early 1960's cartoon The Alvin Show; I had all of their albums (including The Chipmunks See Doctor Doolittle and The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles,) and my pre-adolescent Yuletide was not complete unless I listened to Christmas with the Chipmunks (Volumes 1 and 2) at least 100 times. This morning I received an early Christmas present courtesy of YouTube; a clip from the aforementioned Alvin Show featuring Alvin, Simon, Theodore and David Seville (all voiced by Bagdasarian) performing The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late), the 1958 Billboard # 1 hit (the only Christmas song to reach # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart). I, in turn, offer it to you for your Yuletide enjoyment.