Begin the Beguine

The Song that Started it All for Artie Shaw

The year is 1935. Close your eyes and imagine you’re on a long, white, cruise ship named RMS Franconia in the South Pacific.  The oceans are calm, the air is warm, salty, and somewhat moist.  During the day the sun starts life moving and like a band’s conductor controls the tempo and slows life down at just the right time. The water lapping against the bone white bow is the bluest of blues. At night the moon and stars light up the sky with a sober brightness, casting their sparkle on the mystery of the dark water below. This was the setting for Cole Porter when he first put pen to paper to allow the musical notes in his mind to flow through the ink of his pen and onto paper for the song that would be titled ‘Begin the Beguine’.  On that particular day, Porter had little reason to suspect how impactful this song would be, or how many lives and destinies would be shaped and directed by the ink spots on that sheet of paper.

Songwriter Richard Rodgers wrote in his autobiography about a conversation in which Porter claimed to know the secret to writing hit songs. “I’ll write Jewish music,” he said. “I laughed at what I took to be a joke, but not only was Cole dead serious, he eventually did exactly that,” Rodgers said. He pointed to Begin the Beguine, Night and Day and Love for Sale as having ‘unmistakably eastern Mediterranean, minor-key melodies.’

( “Beguine” is pronounced: “Be-Geen” )

Through a series of circumstances the song written on that balmy day would find it’s way from the serenity of the South Pacific to the clamorous busyness of New York City. The tune was included in ‘Jubilee’, a musical comedy that opened on Broadway in October 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression. In the years that followed, the day would come when like a falling leaf in autumn, the song would land in the hands of a hardworking musician who was making a name for himself as Art Shaw.  Shaw, who played both saxophone and clarinet, was hustling to make a living like most musicians in the big city.  As an artist he had a natural talent for creating and sharing beauty in the world by changing ink spot notes on paper into audible music with such feeling and emotion that people had to stop what they were doing and allow themselves to get lost in the moment.

In July of 1938 Art Shaw signed a one-year contract for his band to make a record on RCA Victor’s budget label Bluebird.  The first song he recorded was ‘Begin the Beguine‘, but the music execs at Bluebird were more excited about ‘Indian Love Call‘ which they put on side-A. It was this same year when a recording executive observed that “Art Shaw” sounded like “a fast sneeze” which lead to Shaw changing his name to “Artie Shaw”.

The record sold millions of copies, more than any instrumental recording in history.

Artie Shaw and His Orchestra playing Begin the Beguine

1939

Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell dancing to ‘Begin the Beguine’ from the movie “Broadway Melody of 1940“.

Lyrics to ‘Begin the Beguine’

When they begin the beguine
It brings back the sound of music so tender,
It brings back a night of tropical splendor,
It brings back a memory ever green.

I’m with you once more under the stars,
And down by the shore an orchestra’s playing
And even the palms seem to be swaying
When they begin the beguine.

To live it again is past all endeavor,
Except when that tune clutches my heart,
And there we are, swearing to love forever,
And promising never, never to part.

What moments divine, what rapture serene,
Till clouds came along to disperse the joys we had tasted,
And now when I hear people curse the chance that was wasted,
I know but too well what they mean;

So don’t let them begin the beguine
Let the love that was once a fire remain an ember;
Let it sleep like the dead desire I only remember
When they begin the beguine.

Oh yes, let them begin the beguine, make them play
Till the stars that were there before return above you,
Till you whisper to me once more,
“Darling, I love you!”
And we suddenly know, what heaven we’re in,
When they begin the beguine

Songwriters: Cole Porter
Begin the Beguine lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc