Born in London, Ontario, Canada, as a child he took flute lessons, and later learned to play saxophone, forming a band with his brother Guy as conductor. The band developed into The Royal Canadians in 1923, in which Carmen both sang and wrote music. 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 "I'm 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.
In the late 1960s, actor-raconteur Tony Randall made several TV appearances on the "Tonight Show" 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.
Lombardo died of cancer in Miami in 1971.
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Last updated on Thursday September 25, 2008 at 00:35:50 PDT (GMT -0700)
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