BEGIN THE BEGUINE

This is Friday the 13th, but my day began with a rainbow wishing me good luck at breakfast:

Good moment for some nostalgia.  One of my favorite songs is Begin the Beguine, composed by Cole Porter on a 1935 cruise between Indonesia and Fiji.  The music was unconventional then, but was used in the Broadway musical Jubilee later in the year, featuring June Knight.  Porter's Just One of Those Things, too.  The first recording was released by Xavier Cugat, also that year.

Two years later Artie Shaw in his first recording session with RCA chose to start with Begin the Beguine for his new 14-piece band.  However, the company did not think much of the song, so put it on the B side of Indian Love Call.  However, it was BtB that became the best-selling record of 1938.






Then, all the big bands picked it up.  #2 was Bob Hope and Shirley Ross for Thanks for the Memory (which won the Oscar that year), while #3 was the Seven Dwarfs singing Whistle While You Work.

MGM then released Broadway Melody of 1940, featuring Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell dancing to that song.  Six years ago I posted on:

     THE BEST DANCE SEQUENCE EVER

Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell with Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine."  Here is an 11 minute clip.  I opened a bottle of Stanford Alumni Brutocao Chardonnay, which just arrived, had most of it with an artichoke, a bit of foie gras, some Castello blue cheese, Bugles, endive and radicchio.  Go ahead, click on that clip, go to full screen and turn up the volume.  It never seems to end, thankfully.  This will be the best eleven minutes of your day.

Unfortunately, that 11-minute clip was taken out of circulation.  But here is a 3-minute version.  This was the first and last time they danced together.

But I don't give up so easily.  I found that 11-minute masterpiece on Vimeo.  Why is this dance sequence memorable for me?  One, it's the best, ever, but two, I was born that year.

All early versions were mostly instrumental.  Tony Martin released the first popular vocal in 1946.  On the B-side was September Song.  He and Cyd Charisse were married for 60 years, until she passed away.

In 1962 Elvis Presley suggested different lyrics, but Porter declined.  As a result, Elvis released You'll Be Gone, which kind of sounds like BtB.

Finally, I never really knew what beguine meant, until today.  It is a dance in bolero rhythm that originated in Martinique in the 1800's.

Cole Porter certainly had an interesting life.  He supposedly wrote 300 songs while enrolled at Yale and served in the French Foreign Legion.  Fred Astaire starred in Porter's Gay Divorcee, from where came his most popular song, Night and Day.  Appropriate because even though he was "married" for 35 years, that was what he was.  The Cary Grant of the film with that title was not the real Cole Porter.  Nevertheless, this final scene is worthy cinematics.

Cole was responsible for Silk Stockings (Cyd Charisse, from Ninotchka with Greta Garbo), Can-Can, High Society, Anything  Goes, Kiss Me Kate and much more.  He published 800 songs.  Hey, it's Friday, so let me end with Uptown Funk, featuring Astaire/Powell and many of your other favorite dancers.  These sequences will truly make your day.  Amazing.  For all ages.

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