Carmen Lombardo

Carmen Lombardo (July 16, 1903 – April 17, 1971) was the younger brother of bandleader Guy Lombardo. He was a vocalist and composer.

Carmen Lombardo
BornJuly 16, 1903
London, Ontario, Canada
DiedApril 17, 1971 (aged 67)
Miami, Florida
OccupationMusician

Early years

Lombardo was born in London, Ontario, Canada. As a child, he took flute lessons, and later learned to play saxophone.

Composing

Lombardo's compositions included the 1928 classic "Sweethearts on Parade", which was number one for three weeks in 1929 on the U.S. pop charts, "Ridin' Around in the Rain", written with Gene Austin in 1934, the jazz and pop standards "Coquette", "Boo Hoo", and "Some Rainy Day", and "Powder Your Face With Sunshine (Smile, Smile, Smile)", written with Stanley Rochinski in 1948–49. In 1927, Carmen Lombardo was the vocalist of the 1927 hit record, Charmaine, performed by the Guy Lombardo Orchestra.

Career

As a young man played in the Lombardo Brothers Concert Company with Guy on violin and another brother, Lebert, on trumpet or piano.[1] As the band grew, Guy became conductor, and the band developed into The Royal Canadians in 1923, in which Carmen both sang and wrote music.[2] He frequently collaborated with American composers and his music was recorded by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and others. Many of his compositions have also been used in Woody Allen films. When singing songs like "Alone at a Table for Two" he would allow his voice to tremble, and seem nearly to break into tears- he was caricatured in Warner Brothers cartoons as "Cryman" Lombardo.

Lombardo wrote the words and music with John Jacob Loeb for Guy Lombardo's stage productions of Arabian Nights (1954, 1955), Paradise Island (1961, 1962), and Mardi Gras (1965, 1966) at Jones Beach Marine Theater, New York.[2]

In the late 1960s, actor-raconteur Tony Randall made several TV appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in which he sang songs written by Carmen Lombardo in a voice imitating (and somewhat exaggerating) Lombardo's style. On one appearance, Lombardo and Randall performed a duet of Lombardo's "Boo Hoo (You've Got Me Crying for You)", which was one of the songs that Randall typically included in his Lombardo routine.

Death

Lombardo died of cancer in Miami in 1971, aged 67.[3]

Compositions by Carmen Lombardo

Lombardo's compositions included the number one jazz and pop standard "Sweethearts on Parade", "Powder Your Face with Sunshine (Smile! Smile! Smile!)", "A Lane in Spain", "Some Rainy Day", "Boo Hoo (You've Got Me Crying For You)", "A Sailboat in the Moonlight" (1937) with John Jacob Loeb,[4][5] "Coquette", written with Johnny Green and Gus Kahn, recorded by Paul Whiteman, Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Lunceford, Bud Freeman, Bob Crosby, The Ink Spots, and Fats Domino, "Seems Like Old Times", "Oahu (My Lovely Island Home)", "Get Out Those Old Records", "Ridin' Around in the Rain" with Gene Austin, "Return to Me" (1957) with Danny Di Minno, and "You're Beautiful To-Night, My Dear".[6]

He wrote five songs for the 1934 film Many Happy Returns, in which the orchestra appeared.[7]

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gollark: You'd need rails or something all the way across the Atlantic.
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See also

References
  1. Elaine Keillor (18 March 2008). Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 207. ISBN 978-0-7735-3391-2.
  2. "Carmen Lombardo". Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  3. "Carmen Lombardo Dead at 67; Helped Lead Royal Canadians". New York Times, April 18, 1971, Robert E. Tomasson
  4. Don Tyler (2 April 2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955: American Popular Music of the Pre-Rock Era. McFarland. p. 229. ISBN 978-0-7864-2946-2.
  5. Warren W. Vaché (2000). The Unsung Songwriters: America's Masters of Melodies. Scarecrow Press. p. 275. ISBN 978-0-8108-3570-2.
  6. "Carmen Lombardo biography" Archived 2010-06-22 at the Wayback Machine, songwritershalloffame.org, accessed February 15, 2010
  7. Spoonts, Lucille (April 17, 1934). "Lombardo Brothers Agree on Two Things -- Fishing and Music; Dynamos of Energy". Texas, Amarillo. The Amarillo Globe-Times. p. 7. Retrieved February 11, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
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