JOHNNY MATHIS - BEGIN THE BEGUINE

BEGIN THE BEGUINE

JOHNNY MATHIS

SONGWRITER: COLE PORTER

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: THE BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE

LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS

GENRE: POP

YEAR: 1979

 

            John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer-songwriter of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status and 73 making the Billboard charts to date. Mathis has received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for three separate recordings.

Although frequently described as a romantic singer, his discography includes traditional pop, Brazilian and Spanish music, soul, rhythm and blues, show tunes, Tin Pan Alley, soft rock, blues, country music, and even a few disco songs for his album Mathis Magic in 1979. Mathis has also recorded six albums of Christmas music. In a 1968 interview, Mathis cited Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, and Bing Crosby among his musical influences

          "Begin the Beguine" is a popular song written by Cole Porter. Porter composed the song between Kalabahi, Indonesia, and Fiji during a 1935 Pacific cruise aboard Cunard's ocean liner Franconia. In October 1935, it was introduced by June Knight in the Broadway musical Jubilee, produced at the Imperial Theatre in New York City. Beguine is a dance and music form, similar to a slow rhumba.

          The Best Days of My Life is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on January 29, 1979, by Columbia Records and scaled back considerably on his more than decade-long practice of recording recent hit songs by other artists. He did, however, cover two standards: "As Time Goes By" and "Begin the Beguine", the latter of which is given a disco arrangement.

      The album made its first appearance on Billboard magazine's Top LP's & Tapes chart in the issue dated February 24, 1979, and remained there for seven weeks, peaking at number 122. It also made it to number 38 during a five-week run on the UK album chart.

            The first song from the album to reach any of the charts in Billboard was a duet with Jane Olivor titled "The Last Time I Felt Like This" that was written for the 1978 film Same Time, Next Year and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song but lost to "Last Dance" from Thank God It's Friday. The duet entered the magazine's list of the 50 most popular Easy Listening records in the US in the issue dated February 24, 1979, and peaked at number 15 over the course of 12 weeks. Another track from the album, "Begin the Beguine", entered that same chart five months later, in the July 21 issue, and got as high as number 37 during its five weeks there. The only song from the album to reach the UK singles chart was "Gone, Gone, Gone", which made its debut there the following month, on August 11, and reached number 15 during a 10-week run.

           The album was first released on compact disc in 1989, and on January 27, 2015, Funkytowngrooves released an expanded edition of the album on compact disc that included five bonus tracks, two of which were disco mixes that came out in 1979 on a separate 12-inch single.

When they begin the beguine

It brings back the sound of music so tender,

It brings back a night of tropical splendour,

It brings back a memory evergreen.

 

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 endeavour,

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.