Guy LOMBARDO & His Royal Canadians – There’s Danger In Your Eyes, Chérie (Richman & Meskill, Wendling) Fox – Trot from “Puttin’ On the Ritz” with Vocal chorus by Carmen Lombardo, Columbia 1930 (Recorded in USA, British product)

NOTE: Guy LOMBARDO (b. 1902 Gaetano Alberto Lombardo in London, Ontario, Canada – d. 1977 in Houston, Texas, USA) - Canadian violinist and orchestra manager. He came from the Italian immigrants family, his father was a tailor and four of his five brothers were musically talented and played some instruments. In grammar school years the Lombardos established their first orchestra which played at the church lawn parties. Their vocalist was one of the brothers, Carmen and the band was billed as the Lombardo Brothers and Their Orchestra. Their public performances resulted in proposition to play between 1921-24 in Cleveland and Chicago, where they were offered to wax at the Gennett studios in Richmond, Virginia. This open them avenue to New York, where they performed as the Royal Canadians and signed to Columbia to record prolifically from 1927-31. In 1932 they signed to Brunswick and in later years to Decca and Victor. Their popularity helped them survive the Great Depression and in the 1930s/40s they became one of the best known North American dance bands in the world.
They belonged to large group of American “sweet” big-bands (e.g. Jan Garber, Orrin Tucker, Sammy Kaye, Kay Kyser, Eddie Duchin to name just a few) and were considered by the jazz community as “boring, mainstream pap”. Yet, famous Louis Armstrong regularly named The Lombardos as his favorite orchestra. Their greatest hits were "Boo Hoo", "Coquette", "The Peanut Vendor", "Seems Like Old Times", "Harbour Lights". Starting in 1929 Lombardo’s band joined the New Year's Eve big band show on radio to continue for almost half a century. In 1956 they also joined the New Year’s specials at CBS tv. Guy Lombardo was an important figure in Step Boat speedboat racing, winning the Gold Cup in 1946. He died in 1977 from a heart attack. After Guy’s death his brother Victor took over the band briefly, but was not able to maintain it. In 1979 the Royal Canadians dissolved.

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