Begin the Beguine

For the Spanish film, see Begin the Beguine (film).

Not to be confused with the R.E.M. song "Begin the Begin" or the television episode "Begin the Begin" (Grey's Anatomy).

"Begin the Beguine"
Single by Artie Shaw and His Orchestra (original issues as "Art" Shaw)
A-side	Indian Love Call
B-side	Begin the Beguine
Recorded	July 24, 1938, New York, New York
Genre	Jazz
Length	3:11
Label	Bluebird B-7746
Writer(s)	Cole Porter; (Arranged by Artie Shaw and Jerry Gray)

"Begin the Beguine" is a song written by Cole Porter (1891–1964). Porter composed the song at the piano in the bar of the Ritz Hotel in Paris^{[citation needed]}. In October 1935, it was introduced by June Knight in the Broadway musical Jubilee produced at the Imperial Theatre in New York City.

Music

The beguine music and dance form, a slow, close couples' dance, comes from the Caribbean, especially Martinique and Guadeloupe, where in the local Creole language the name means "White lady". It is a combination of French ballroom dance and Latin folk dance, which became popular in Paris and spread further abroad in the 1940s, largely due to the influence of the Porter song.

Based on the title dance, the song is notable for its 108-measure length, departing drastically from the conventional thirty-two-bar form. Where a typical "standard" popular song of its time was written in a fairly strict 32-measure form consisting of two or three eight-measure subjects generally arranged in the form A-A-B-A or A-B-A-C, "Begin the Beguine" employs the form A-A-B-A-C1-C2 with each phrase being sixteen measures in length rather than the usual eight. The final "C2" section is stretched beyond its 16 measures an additional twelve bars for a total of 28 measures, with the twelve additional measures providing a sense of finality to the long form.

The slight differences in each of the "A" sections, along with the song's long phrases and final elongated "C2" section at the end, give it unique character and complexity. The fact that the song's individual parts hold up melodically and harmonically over such a long form also attests to Porter's talent and ability as a songwriter.

Porter reportedly once said of the song, "I can never remember it — if I want to play I need to see the music in front of me!"^{[citation needed]} Alec Wilder described it in his book American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900-1950 as "a maverick, an unprecedented experiment and one which, to this day, after hearing it hundreds of times, I cannot sing or whistle or play from start to finish without the printed music".

Artie Shaw version

At first, the song gained little popularity, perhaps because of its length and unconventional form (108 bars). Josephine Baker danced to it in her return to America in the 1936 Ziegfeld Follies, but neither she nor the song were successful. Two years later, however, bandleader Artie Shaw recorded an arrangement of the song, an extended swing orchestra version, in collaboration with his right-hand arranger and orchestrator Jerry Gray.

After signing a new recording contract with RCA Victor records in the summer of 1938, Shaw called up "Beguine" to be the first of six tunes he would record at his initial recording session on July 24. Until then Shaw's band had been having a tough time finding an identity and maintaining its existence without having had any popular hits of significance; his previous recording contract with Brunswick had lapsed at the end of 1937 without being renewed.

RCA's pessimism with the whole idea of recording the long tune "that nobody could remember from beginning to end anyway" sealed its fate as being released on the "B" side of the record it appeared on ("Artie Shaw and His Orchestra" issued by Bluebird Records as catalog number B-7746 B). Shaw's persistence paid off, though, when "Begin the Beguine" became a best-selling record in 1938, peaking at #3. Despite Shaw's earlier obscurity, the release of his recording of "Beguine" skyrocketed Shaw and his band to fame and popularity. The recording, indeed, became one of the most famous and popular anthems of the entire Swing Era.

Subsequent re-releases by RCA Victor (catalog number 20-1551) and other releases on LPs, tapes and CDs have kept the recording readily available continuously ever since its initial release.

Later on, when composer Cole Porter met the by-then famous bandleader, he jokingly remarked to Shaw, "I'm glad to finally meet my collaborator." Shaw reportedly replied, "Does this mean I get half of the royalties?"^{[citation needed]}

Later popularity

Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell dance to "Begin the Beguine" in Broadway Melody of 1940

After Shaw introduced the song to dance halls, MGM brought out the musical film Broadway Melody of 1940 in which Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell danced "Begin the Beguine". In short order, all the major big bands recorded it, including Harry James, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller, often as an instrumental as in the film. As a vocal song, it also became a pop standard, beginning with Cole Porter and Tony Martin; new interpretations are often still measured against renditions by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, and even Elvis Presley did an adaptation of his own. "Begin the Beguine" became such a classic during the war years that the painter Max Beckmann adopted the title for a painting in 1946 (now at University of Michigan Museum of Art).

Releases by notable artists

• Tony Martin recorded Begin the Beguine at least twice: on March 14, 1939 for Decca Records (catalog numbers 2375a and later 25018 in 78 rpm, 9-25018 in 45 rpm) and for RCA Victor Records in the late 1940s (catalog number 20-2814, 47-3228).
• Leslie Hutchinson recorded a version in the 1930s. In the 1930s, this recording was given to the Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba, who later asked that it be played seven times at his tomb when his body was laid to rest, which occurred a week after his death on 31 January 1969.
• Eddie Heywood and his orchestra recorded a single version in 1944.
• Alys Robi on 78 rpm in 1944.
• The Andrews Sisters recorded a single version in collaboration with Glenn Miller and his orchestra.
• Jo Stafford recorded a version in the early 1950s.
• Mario Lanza recorded a successful version in the late 1950s.
• Frank Sinatra recorded a version, re-released on The Columbia Years (1943-1952).
• Charlie Parker's album "The Cole Porter Songbook" (1950–54; re-released on CD in 1991) contains one of the most influential versions.
• Caterina Valente recorded a wonderful version in 1956 -> The Hi-Fi Nightingale, 1956.
• Liberace recorded and performed a spirited version with his brother, George Liberace, on his live television show in 1956.
• Ella Fitzgerald recorded a version for the Cole Porter Songbook records on Verve, 1956
• Louis Prima and Keely Smith recorded a single version in 1961.
• Elvis Presley recorded his own song in 1962, based on the Cole Porter song, entitled "You'll Be Gone". Presley co-wrote the original aspects of the song with his bodyguard Red West and assistant Charlie Hodge.
• Andy Williams recorded a version for his 1964 album, "The Great Songs from My Fair Lady and other Broadway Hits".
• Tom Jones recorded a version in 1966, for his album From the Heart.
• Django Reinhardt recorded several times a gipsy jazz version of Begin the Beguine.
• Les Paul recorded a jazz guitar version of the song.
• Juan García Esquivel recorded a Lounge-music version of the tune.
• Pete Townshend recorded a version in 1970, for his album Happy Birthday.
• Johnny Mathis recorded an eight minute long disco version in 1979, as well as a samba rendition.
• Sammy Davis, Jr. recorded a version in 1979, for his album Hearin' is Believin'.
• Julio Iglesias recorded a version in 1981, which reached number 1 in the UK - the first all Spanish song to do so.
• Richard Clayderman's album Music of love (1984) includes this song.
• Tuck Andress recorded a version in 1990, for his album Reckless Precision.
• Thomas Hampson recorded a version on his Cole Porter album, "Night and Day" for EMI (1991). This features the original arrangements by Robert Russell Bennett, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by John McGlinn.
• Michael Nesmith recorded a version in 1992, for his solo album Tropical Campfires.
• Pearl Django recorded a gypsy jazz version in 2000, for the album Avalon.
• Sheryl Crow recorded a version for the 2004 Porter Biopic, "De-lovely".

Uses in films

• Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell danced to an instrumental version in Broadway Melody of 1940.
• Deanna Durbin sang it in the film Hers to Hold (1943).
• In the 1946 movie Night and Day, the Latin singer Carlos Ramirez performed this song.
• "Begin the Beguine" was referenced in the 1968 animated movie Yellow Submarine in a conversation between the characters John and Jeremy.
• It was also sung by Sammy Davis Jr. in Moon Over Parador
• Begin the Beguine was the chosen English title for Volver a Empezar (José Luis Garci, 1982), the first Spanish film to win an Academy Award in Hollywood for a foreign language movie. Garci includes another tribute to Cole Porter in another of his films, You're the One (2000).
• The song is referenced in the movie The Worst Witch, during the song "Anything Can Happen on Halloween" sung by Tim Curry as The Grand Wizard. (1986)
• The song is featured in the 1989 documentary The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, during the chapters in which Hank is drafted into the armed forces and in a part of the chapter about the relationship between Hank and his wife, Carol.
• "Begin the Beguine" is sung by actress Melora Hardin in the South Seas Club scene in The Rocketeer (1991).
• A rousing instrumental march arrangement of the song appears on the soundtrack of Evil Under the Sun (1982 film).
• Sheryl Crow performs the song in the biopic film about Cole Porter, De-Lovely (2004).
• Instrumental music played during a ballroom scene in the 2008 movie Australia includes "Begin the Beguine" performed by Australian clarinetist Andy Firth and the Ralph Pyle Big Band.
• "Begin the Beguine" is referenced in the movie The Aristocrats as the song Susie Essman's grandmother plays every night.(2005)
• In the film Hope and Glory, the song is sung by the character Dawn while her family is repairing windows broken during an air raid.
• Used in the film "The Josephine Baker Story" in 1991
• Used in the film "Ballet Shoes" in 2007

Uses in other media

• A character in Michael Ondaatje's Divisadero (2007) refers to this song several times.
• The song is quoted musically and affectionately parodied in Noel Coward's tongue-twisting 1944 song Nina.
• Mentioned several times in Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex. Milton Stephanides, father of the novel's main character, Cal, plays the song on his clarinet in order to woo Tessie, Cal's mother.
• Mentioned in Jimmy Buffett's novel A Salty Piece of Land.
• In the Little Mermaid song "Under the Sea", Sebastian the crab sings "When the sardines begin the beguines, it's music to me."
• In the short story "Julio Iglesias" by Haruki Murakami, Iglesias' recording of the song proves to be unbearable to a group of sea turtles.
• Tom Lehrer refers to it in his song "Alma" - "Her lovers were many and varied/From the day she began her -- beguine."
• The song is cited by name in the first episode of the BBC sitcom, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads.
• Fictional Medal of Honor recipient Ernie Yost sings the song in an episode of NCIS when he proclaims his love for Artie Shaw over Benny Goodman in the episode "Call of Silence".
• In the Valentine's Day episode of the hit sitcom The Golden Girls, Julio Iglesias and Sophia (Estelle Getty) sing the first line.
• In a sixth-season The West Wing episode called "A Good Day", President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) sings part of the song while dancing in the Oval Office with the First Lady, Abby (Stockard Channing).
• In Episode 8 of Twin Peaks, character Leland Palmer regains consciousness after collapsing and menacingly exclaims "I feel good... Begin the beguine!".
• On the "Chess" concept album, in the song "Mountain Duet", the Russian sings "Get to the point, begin the beguine".
• In the musical "Kiss of the Spider Woman", Molina sings "And sultry girls beginning some beguine" in the song "Only in the Movies".

Preceded by "Under Pressure" by Queen & David Bowie

UK number one single 5 December 1981 for (1 week)

Succeeded by "Don't You Want Me" by The Human League

See also

• List of 1930s jazz standards