Begin the Beguine

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“Begin the Beguine”

Single by Artie Shaw
Recorded	July 24, 1938, New York, NY
Genre	Jazz
Length	3:11
Label	Bluebird B-7746
Writer(s)	Cole Porter

Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell in Broadway Melody of 1940

"Begin the Beguine" is a song written by Cole Porter and introduced by June Knight in the Broadway musical Jubilee (1935). Based on the title dance, it is notable for its 108-measure length, departing drastically from the conventional thirty-two-bar form. 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."^[1] It was popularized and made famous by a best-selling record in 1938 (recorded July 24, issued by Bluebird Records as catalog number B-7746 and later by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-1551^[2]) by Artie Shaw and His Orchestra.

A beguine is a spirited ballroom dance. Since "begin" and "beguine" are often pronounced the same by some people, it is common to see the song's title misspelled as "Begin the Begin", as when used by R.E.M. as the title to a track on Lifes Rich Pageant.

1 Use in films
2 Use in other media
3 Other recordings
4 Citations

[edit] Use in films

Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell danced to an instrumental version in Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940).
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.
Begin the Beguine (Volver a Empezar, José Luis Garci, 1982) is the title of the first Spanish film that won a Hollywood Academy Award for a foreign language movie. Garci includes another tribute to Cole Porter in other of his films, You're the One (2000).
"Begin the Beguine" 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)
"Begin the Beguine" is sung by actress Melora Hardin in the South Seas Club scene in The Rocketeer (1991).
"Begin the Begine" is performed by Sheryl Crow in the 2004 movie about Cole Porter, De-Lovely.

[edit] Use 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 Nina from Argentina.
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, Sebastain 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"
In the Valentine's Day episode of the hit sitcom The Golden Girls, Julio Iglesias & Sophia (Estelle Getty) sing the first line.
In Twin Peaks, the character Leland Palmer passes out, then wakes up and refers to it. "Begin the beguine"

[edit] Other recordings

"Begin the Beguine" was revived in 1981 by Julio Iglesias and became a major No. 1 hit across Europe.
The Andrews Sisters also had a major hit with this song.^{[citation needed]}
The song was also a hit for Tony Martin^[3], recorded at least twice: on March 14, 1939 for Decca Records (catalog numbers 2375a^[4] and later 25018^[5] in 78 rpm, 9-25018 in 45 rpm) and for RCA Victor Records in the late 1940s (catalog number 20-2814^[6], 47-3228).
Mario Lanza recorded a successful version of the song in the late 50s.
Liberace recorded a spirited version, and also performed it with his brother George Liberace on his live 1956 Liberace television show (performed without sheet music).
Johnny Mathis recorded a successful disco version.
Ella Fitzgerald recorded a version for the Cole Porter Songbook records on Verve
Pete Townshend recorded a version on his 1972 solo album Who Came First.
Sammy Davis, Jr. recorded a version of this on "The Wham of Sam"
Michael Nesmith of The Monkees recorded a version on his 1992 solo album Tropical Campfire's.
Acoustic guitarist Tuck Andress recorded a version on his 1990 album Reckless Precision.
Pacific Northwest based Pearl Django recorded a gypsy jazz version on their 2000 album Avalon

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