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Begin the Begine 1935
Cole Porter (m/w)
From show “Jubilee”
Porter himself told two different stories of the music that inspired this. First he said he was inspired when he heard it on one of the Fiji Islands while on a cruise. Then he said he was inspired when he heard it when some dancers from Martinique performed to some music in a Paris dance hall. The word “beguine” is supposed to mean “begin,” a signal to the dancers to start. The public liked it from the start, but it was difficult to sing. A recording by Xavier Cugat helped, but Artie Shaw’s swing version of the song made it take off. It is given production number treatment in the film “Broadway Melody of 1940.”
Notes by Frank Behrens
