When they begin the beguine,
It brings back the sound of music so tender,
It brings back a night of tropical splendor,
Cole Porter Begin the Beguine (from Jubilee 1935)
What is a Beguine?
And down by the shore an orchestra’s playing,
And even the palms seem to be swaying.
Definitions vary wildly. Everyone agrees that it is a dance ('swaying') involving music ('orchestra playing'). After that they are literally all over the map
- a South American bolero
- a French ballroom dance
- a folk song from Martinique
- a variation on a Cuban rumba.
Cole Porter
I was living in Paris at the time {1920s} and somebody suggested that I go to see the Black Martiniquois… do their native dance called The Beguine…I was very much taken by the rhythm of the dance … {like a} rumba but much faster ...I thought of BEGIN THE BEGUINE as a good title for a song and put it away in a notebook.
Cole Porter letter to a fan
Ten years later, and on the other side of the world, Mr High Society was on a cruise around the Indonesian archipelago, working on songs for a new musical comedy Jubilee. According to Porter, one evening's entertainment featured another a native dance… the melody of the first four bars of which was to become my song.
Artie Shaw
In 1938 a young bandleader recorded the Begin the Beguine, by then a half-forgotten tune from an unsuccessful musical comedy
Artie Shaw dropped the words and arranged a swinging instrumental in standard 4/4 time. This was rebadged on the record label as a FOXTROT. Initially released it as B_side to the now forgotten Indian Call Sign it was picked up by local radio stations, then dance bands.
By the time the US entered the war in 1941, the whole world was humming it. But very few had a clue as to what a beguine might be