The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I used to believe that his music was all easy-listening crap, but I listened to a few of his pieces with the Royal Canadians on YouTube and think it is fairly good music. Nothing to go out of your way to hear, but pleasant and a lot better than some of the other big bands.

I rank Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians above these band leaders:

Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye
Xavier Cugat
Les Brown

Some of the Lombardo 1920s Columbia Viva Tonal sides are actually quite hot. "The Cannonball", "I'm More Than Satisfied", "Waitin' For Katy" and "Under The Moon" come to mind.

The earlier Gennett sides are hot too, but almost impossible to find. They did a Vocalion disc as Louisville Rhythm Kings "Mississippi Mud" (the flip side title escapes me) that is also hot.

Not a lot of people know that Louis Armstrong was a huge Lombardo fan (and vice versa). You can hear the Lombardo influence on a lot of the "New Sebastian" orchestra sides on OKeh.

I agree with the above- the older the better. Some of his Orthophonic sides can be very nice, like the novelty "The Broken Record" (I love you/I Love you/I love you). Eventually he moved to "The Sweetest Music This Side Of Heaven" and became musically much less interesting.

Auld Lang Syne makes me cry like a small child, those dang weepy saxes get me every time.

I was viewing Lombardo on Youtube from what looks like the late 1950s. Pretty fair band playing and solos and good male singers.

Singers not as good as Dick Haymes or Buddy Clark, however.

I saw him the last time they played it on TV, New Year's Eve 1976-77. Lombardo was a national tradition on NYE TV previous to that. When he died in November 1977 there was actually talk of not celebrating NYE that year.

So I guess he’s like Fred Waring? Decent 1920s stuff, but got really boring by the Decca years?

Probably Don Rodney and Kenny Gardner. They were good but not outstanding.

There was just something about Decca.

Previously great bands signed with Decca and became snoozers... Armstrong, Lombardo, Ted Weems, Isham Jones... Bing Crosby was a very capable jazz/ scat singer before moving to Decca to become The Old Groaner. The Andrews Sisters early sides with Leon Belasco on Brunswick were quite jazzy, too... then they, too, signed with Decca and became "personalities" rather than artists, in my opinion.

And yet, there were exceptions. Most Dorsey Brothers Deccas are great and Glenn Miller's Decca sides are a real treat. Miller actually had a quite serious jazz oriented band in 1935-38, first with Columbia, then Brunswick, then Decca. For some reason, Miller went to Victor but acted like he went to Decca, LOL.

Gramo George wrote: "Previously great bands signed with Decca and became snoozers... Armstrong, Lombardo, Ted Weems, Isham Jones..."

I would be inclined to agree, as I love all the bands/artists you mention; however, as for "snoozers," a really pleasant surprise is my Isham Jones recording of "Dallas Blues" on Decca. It's a good one! https://youtu.be/eLnSeVOm2EU