You can barely hear it, but it's there; each year on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve," amid the ruckus of Times Square in the moments after midnight, a gentle, plaintive big-band version of "Auld Lang Syne" hums along softly. It's the sound of the New Year in the English-speaking world, but only a phantom presence in the broadcast beamed to those of us not unhinged enough to camp out all night in midtown. A remnant of an age well before Ryan Seacrest, listening to this recording takes us back to a time when Dick Clark, TV, and rock and roll vied against Guy Lombardo (and the Royal Canadians), radio, and sweet jazz for the ears of Americans on New Year's Eve. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices