Begin the Beguine

"Begin the Beguine" is a song by Cole Porter from his 1935 Broadway musical Jubilee. It became one of the best-known songs of the swing era. This page has the Begin the Beguine chords and a backing track you can slow down, speed up and transpose.

Who wrote "Begin the Beguine"

Cole Porter wrote both the music and the words, after a trip that took him to the Caribbean, where he heard the beguine dance. The song is unusually long for a popular song of its time and drew little notice in the show.

Recordings that made it a standard

• Artie Shaw and His Orchestra (Bluebird, 1938) — the swing arrangement that made the song a hit.
• Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell — the dance number in the film Broadway Melody of 1940.
• Ella Fitzgerald — Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book (1956).