JULIO IGLESIAS – "Begin The Beguine"

it’s syrupy plus he’s got that demis roussos tremble in his voice – a few years earlier and you can imagine it playing at Beverley’s house in Abigail’s Party

Yep, parents’ music is one term for it, although the further on into Popular you get the more risky its use becomes – a good few pop fans’ mums and dads will have been old rockers or even Mods by this time, and we’re not too far from Dadrock!

But let’s just say my mum enjoyed this more than I did at the time. Nothing whatsoever wrong with it, it just wasn’t pitched at 19-year-old students. Looking back now, it’s perfectly pleasant, well written, produced and sung, and of course it’s the first half of the archetypal pop quiz question, to be completed a generation later.

And as singing ex-goalkeepers go, I’ll take Julio over that numpty from Westlife any day.

As a foreign language version of an old standard, it is necessary to look to the arrangement for succour, and for those of a disco persuasion it is a palpable hit, a wonderfully kitch performance from musicians and backing singers alike. At the risk of antagonising the sensitivities of His Lordship, the fact that this production is pure, uncut, creamy, illegal in 48 states curds and whey cannot be gainsaid. Further, there is not the slightest hint of onion, Spanish or otherwise to save the dish. And then there is Julio, the sort of bloke both your mum and sister would fancy, even if they couldn’t understand a word the tosser was saying.

A fucking wonderful record.

Number 4 watch (indulge me): Haircut 100 “Favourite Shirts” (Boy Meets Girl). Arriving at the same time – ABC’s debut “Tears Are Not Enough”.

Was this actually recorded in 1981? It seemed like a cute curio, even to adults at the time. I remember seeing Julio on Nationwide (I think) saying how happy he was to be “in the Saxon market”, meaning top of the pops. No wonder he only sang the first line in English.

His voice is wonderful, “nobility masking a brooding passion” is spot on: the ease with which he guides the melody over the frenetic OTT backing is so seductive. A 7 for me for the vocal and song, but I could reeeeally do without the syndrums!

Isn’t there a Bigas Luna film in which the brooding, passionate male lead is obsessed with Julio? Thought it was Golden Balls but imdb doesn’t confirm it.

re 10 and Nationwide: there’s a programme on BBC4 tonight looking back at the shows history. There’s an utterly bizarre photo in the latest Time Out of the presenters dressed as characters from the Wizard of Oz with Sue Lawley and Dennis Healey (then Chancellor of the Exchequer) as the Wizard.

For me, this is the first #1 since Deniece Willams’ “Free” that has prompted a major upward evaluation. Great tune, sparkling arrangement (if dated by 1981 standards, but hooray for the trusty old syn-drum!), delightful delivery, what’s not to love? As such, it compares very well with the Artie Shaw version and some of the other older covers (Andrews Sisters, Charlie Parker, Billy Fury) that I dug up on Spotify.

Of course, I hated it at the time, for the usual snobby 19-year old reasons. With the era of New Pop now upon us, it felt more and more as if “my lot” were taking over – same generation, same outlook, same values – and I totally bought into their “we’re subverting pop from within” line (as yet unaware that “my lot” were as capable of selling out as any other lot). Fired up by this shiny-faced optimism (plus a certain degree of residual punk-derived absolutism), I felt there was no place for the likes of Julio in my Brave New Tomorrow.

(And by April or May 1982, when the New Pop Tribe had more or less taken over the entire Top 40, it seemed as if my wish had been granted…)

will @ 15: A day much like today, for me, would be bright, sunny, crisp and cold with snow on the higher fells and on distant Ingleborough but nothing at all on the ground locally, wondering where the hell all this chaos is that the media keep telling me is bringing my life to a standstill!

I used to be able to play a mean version of this on the Yamaha organ my parents bought me, aged 15 or so. I never really liked the Iglesias version – as Conrad notes, Haircut 100 was where it was at when this topped the chart – but perhaps it is time for a re-evaluation.

#19: I remember the letters pages of the said “inky music press” used to fulminate with indignation and opprobrium at this man’s presence at the top of the charts. After all, he had usurped a position which should, by rights, have been the preserve of the youthful and fashionable. How dare he!

I didn’t like this enough to buy it at the time and it’s a while since I heard it, but Iglesias’ lightness of touch was pleasant, as was the arrangement. He was very well known on the Continent – I’d bought other Iglesias records during a stint in France a couple of years previously, but gave this one a miss. Five or maybe six is about right – it’s an agreeable record, but that’s all.

I prefer Enrique, tbh. Haha, NOWHERE on Enrique’s wikipedia page does it mention his father by name…

Of course it won’t be long before Joe Jackson puts out his Night & Day album, and it’s more than just the title (and the sleeve design) which is a nod in the direction of Cole Porter. Let’s not forget that Cole Porter was one of the giants of twentieth century pop music, and a radical innovator. Begin the Beguine is no off-the-peg 32-bar Tin Pan Alley tune.

Not found on Spotify: Salif Keita’s 1990 cover of “Begin The Beguine”, which formed part of the Red Hot & Blue project of Cole Porter covers by contemporary artists, in aid of AIDS research.

The Westway! Entering into the great city, gliding over the serene arch on a bright late autumn early morning, the future spread out benignly before you as you slide effortlessly into London’s rhythm! The autumn of 1981 was when I’d begun to approach London like this on a regular basis, and the initial wonder remains intact. With the memory I always associate two pieces of music: Gil Evans’ “General Assembly,” the 1969 version thereof which appears on the Blues In Orbit album, reissued by Enja that year (and reissued again on CD last week), and Julio Iglesias reinterpreting “Begin The Beguine.” All that busy, bright activity.

With Iglesias I recognised even then that there was something slightly naff and outdated about the whole enterprise – the record’s popularity was again ascribable to Terry Wogan on Radio 2, who very heftily pushed it as a G**lty Pl**s*r*. Much questionable comment was made about my liking for the record by certain of my student colleagues, and given its proximity on my singles shelves to things like “Release The Bats” and “Sorry For Laughing,” no secret was kept of their overall raised eyebrow towards me.

However, I can qualify my love of the record in three main ways. Firstly, November 1981 was a generally dank and gloomy month; I was not yet quite settled in my new home, was still very uncertain about a lot of important things. Two of my big albums from that first term were OMD’s Architecture And Morality and New Order’s Movement, both of which bore the undiluted tears of mourning for Ian Curtis (which in its own indie way was far more prolonged than the mourning for Lennon). So “Begin The Beguine” was much-required light relief (as in its unequalled way was Dare); it made me feel good, reassured and happy with its determined brightness.

Secondly, “Begin The Beguine” is one of those rare songs which I believe impossible to interpret badly. Whether it is Artie Shaw’s courtly original, or Joe Loss’ note-for-note remake, which remains my favourite because of the teasing and sensual lead vocal of the great Chick Henderson, or Sammy Davis Jr deconstructing it in the early sixties to a drumbeat alone, Cole Porter’s innate genius shines through resplendent. And so it is with Julio’s reading. If the record, with its chunky guitar comping, excitable trumpet section (some crossover with Westbrook’s Metropolis here) and keen syndrums, did sound a little passe initially, that is because it was actually recorded in 1978. But for me Ramon Arcusa’s arrangement remains sublime and a million asteroids away from tack.

Thirdly, it is a genuine reinterpretation of, and reflection on, the Porter song. Nearly all of the lyric is in Spanish and was written by Iglesias himself, and despite the record’s cheerful demeanour, the lyric, from what I can decipher with my imperfect Spanish, is all about the end of an affair; Julio looking back with regret on his lost love, recalling how it all began, wanting so badly to rekindle that original spirited light (“volver a empezar” means literally “to go back to the beginning”). Thus its sentiments combine perfectly with the music, which seems to ask Iglesias not to give up hope, or life. I doubt whether the millions of ladies who immediately swooned at his immaculately besuited and booted feet noticed any of this, but it doesn’t really matter; the aura is glorious, the sunrise a foregone conclusion, the pop shining and wonderful.

the village voice — back in its glory days — ran a piece on julio by one of his fans, not a rock or pop writer but a woman in her early 50s who worked (possibly ran) then then-legendary personals section: it was basically the tale of a gang of um well cougars* we’d perhaps say today, discussing what they’d do with JI when they got hold of him

the only section i remember most vividly was the loving description of the extended cradling of his balls

it was very entirely awesome and i still have it somewhere to dig out if you need to know more

*he was then in his mid-40s