Dancing Onstage and in the Movies–Part Five: Cole Porter

The joy of listening to music from a great composer is the fact that the music can vary markedly from one song to another. Take Cole Porter, for example. His greatest musical on Broadway was Kiss Me, Kate, and the Broadway hit was later adapted for the movies. Go to Youtube, and you can listen to Alfred Drake sing “So In Love” from the 1948 original cast recording. Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson sang it in the 1953 movie, and finally Thomas Hampson sang it in the 1990 EMI restoration recording. The song is part Broadway, part opera; all Porter.

However, Cole was just as adept when it came to a fun, jazzy tune for the movies. In Broadway Melody of 1940, he wrote just such a tune for George Murphy and Fred Astaire. When we listen to the witty lyrics, we hear Cole Porter take aim at some of New York City’s landmarks as he suggests that they can be removed–nothing is sacred but Broadway. “Don’t Monkey with Broadway” was arranged and orchestrated by a talented Broadway veteran named Alfred Newman, who had migrated to Hollywood in 1930. During his career in Hollywood, Newman amassed 341 Hollywood credits, including forty-four Academy Award nominations and nine Oscars.

Of course, this same movie provided us with the tap dance of a lifetime, this time between Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell. They go through one orchestral chorus of “Begin the Beguine” and then, without musical accompaniment, start tapping at a higher tempo, with the orchestra coming back in at end. In terms of tap dancing, this definitely a Hall of Fame number. Where Ginger Rogers brought sex appeal to the partnership, Eleanor brought hot dancing and glamour.

“Begin the Beguine” came out of a Cole Porter Broadway show, entitled Jubilee (1935), with a book by Moss Hart. The show was loosely based on the silver jubilee of King George V of Great Britain but was set in mythical European country. The full score is a delight, and the show ought to be revived so that it can be seen again. The two Cole Porter songs that made it into the CP Songbook are this number and “Just One of Those Things.”

Because this is a post dedicated to dancing, we are going to focus on “Begin the Beguine.” For those of you who love the sound of a swing band, please wait just a little while we warm up the band and then click below.