Begin the Beguine
The song Begin the Beguine was composed by Cole Porter for the 1935 Broadway musical premiered Jubilee and texted. It developed into an Evergreen and a jazz standard.
The composition and the text
The pun is approximately equal to written and pronounced "begin" and " beguine " refers to the Beguine, one of the Rumba related Caribbean dance which originated in the 19th century at the time belonged to France Lesser Antilles and from there went to Paris, where Cole Porter met him during one of his stays in Europe. According to the great melodies of the Beguine the song consists of 108 cycles and is in song form AA ' BA ' CC ' written, each of the parts is 16 bars long (except C' with 20 cycles and a coda of 8 bars ).
" Not less cumbersome, the text can not decide whether the Beguine now to start or does not appear. " It is questioned whether the romantic memories of tropical nights, in which sway even the palm trees by the clock of dance are welcome. Only shortly before the end of the song the singer concludes: " Oh yes, let them begin the beguine, make them play. "
Effect story
In Jubilee Begin the Beguine by June Knight was sung in her role as Karen O'Kane. The first commercial recording comes from Xavier Cugat Orchestra ( with vocals by Don Reid ), which was recorded on 15 September 1935, and published in October 1935 with Victor. The publication took place simultaneously with the beginning of the musical Jubilee, which was premiered on 12 October 1935. Other early recordings were by Joe Haymes (1035) and Pierre Allier (1938).
Owes its fame to the title, especially the recorded on 24 July 1938 and published in August 1938 recording by Artie Shaw and his orchestra ( at Bluebird ), the total of 6 weeks, topped the Billboard charts. By the year 1944, the single had sold a million times. In its wake many other prominent orchestras, also took their own versions in their repertoire, including Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, the Casa Loma Orchestra, Bob Crosby and Ray Conniff, but also singers such as Frank Sinatra ( born in 1938 ) and others began to interpret the song.
Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell created to an instrumental version of the piece an acclaimed choreography for the film Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940), which is also a vocal version of Lois Hard Kind of, the vocal double for Carmen D' Antonio, heard. The song also appears twice in the Cole Porter biographical film Night and Day (1946 ), once sung by a mixed choir and dance ensemble and solo the opera baritone Carlos Ramirez. In parallel, in 1946 Frank Sinatra's studio recording of the song ( at Columbia) in the charts. Successful Eddie Heywood's recording was in Boogie Woogie style. Jazz versions exist, for example, by Mildred Bailey ( with Charlie Shavers and Red Norvo ), Sarah Vaughan, Wild Bill Davison, Erroll Garner, Terry Gibbs or Django Reinhardt. The versions of Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Kenton and Charlie Parker (1952 ) were the first in the Latin sound and contributed to the popularization of Latin Jazz with. The versions of Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum (1956 ) set new standards in the interpretation. Ella Fitzgerald's recording with the Orchestra by Buddy Bregman fell with their " bombastic arrangement" on the other hand by the jazz audience.
"Begin The Beguine " counts despite a relatively complex structure of the 16 "All Time Hits", who were elected in 1963 by ASCAP.
Julio Iglesias in 1981 succeeded with his interpretation of a great chart success in Europe and ( in the texted his own Spanish version as "Volver e Empezar " ) and in Latin America.
On the Cole Porter tribute album Red Hot Blue ( 1990) was recorded the song by Salif Keïta.
In the movie about Cole Porter De-Lovely (2004) was sung the song by Sheryl Crow, the scale type changed in this arrangement, as in other previous cover versions also, the minor key, while the original - his sentimental content defiance - in major written is.
Others
Porter's song also inspired the title of the same oil painting ( 1946) by Max Beckmann, which is considered among the most important pieces of Beckmann's late work.