BEGIN THE BEGUINE

Created on 15/06/2002
Latest update on 26/06/2023

Artist: Charles Walters & June Knight
Author: Cole Porter
Label: Victor
Year: 1935

As the crown prince and the dancer in Broadway musical Jubilee. Cole Porter's favorite song. It sure is about the exotic dance routine, while they perform it in Café Martinique. Porter first witnessed the beguine as a dance in Paris in '33, where he saw people from Martinique dancing. Years later, on an island in New Guinea, he got inspired for the rhythm. His Night And Day also shows exotic roots (see there).

Covers:

1935:

Xavier Cugat [vocal: Don Reid]

1937:

Benny Goodman

1938:

Artie Shaw [n°1 US]

1939:

Andrews Sisters

1940:

Fred Astaire & Eleanor Powell [in film Broadway Melody Of 1940]

1940:

Django Reinhardt

1944:

Les Paul Trio

1945:

Eddie Heywood

1946:

Frank Sinatra

1946:

Bing Crosby

1946:

David Rose

1947:

Tony Martin

1948:

Vaughn Monroe

1949:

Jo Stafford

1952:

Connee Boswell

1953:

Tiny Grimes

1955:

Charlie Parker [on his lp Cole Porter Songbook]

1955:

Art Tatum

1956:

Ella Fitzgerald [on lp Sings The Cole Porter Songbook]

1956:

Pat Boone

1957:

Louis Prima [melody vaguely used for his Buona Sera; n°1 NL & B (see there)]

1957:

Sammy Davis Jr.

1959:

Flamingos

1959:

Perry Como

1960:

Ames Brothers

1960:

Chet Atkins

1961:

Al Hirt

1962:

Ann-Margret

1962:

Tony Bennett

1963:

Leslie Uggams

1964:

Andy Williams

1966:

Tom Jones

1966:

Francis Bay

1969:

Pete Townshend [for his guru Meher Baba because he liked it so much; on his Scoop compilation]

1979:

Johnny Mathis

1981:

Julio Iglesias [n°1 UK]

1990:

Salif Keita [on cd Red Hot + Blue, a Cole Porter tribute doubling as anti-AIDS campaign]

2000:

Willy Claes Quartet

2004:

Sheryl Crow [in film De-Lovely]

2014:

Herb Alpert

2019:

Harry Connick Jr.

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

No Facebook No Twitter