The song Guy Lombardo's orchestra made a New Year's Eve broadcast tradition in the United States is “Auld Lang Syne.”
Lombardo and his Royal Canadians performed the song at midnight in radio broadcasts beginning in the 1920s. Their annual New Year's Eve programs helped establish the tune as a familiar American sound for the change of year, even though the song originated in Scottish tradition and had already been associated with farewells.
The broadcasts were especially influential before television became dominant and later continued on television. Lombardo's orchestra was known for its dance-band style, and the phrase “the world's foremost interpreter of Scottish music” was used in connection with the group. The song's American New Year's association therefore reflects mass broadcasting as well as its older Scottish meaning.