Beguine (dance) Beguine (dance) The beguine is a dance and music form, similar to a slow rhumba. It was popular in the 1930s, coming from the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, where in local Creole "Beke" or "Begue" means a White person, and "Beguine" is the female form. It is a combination of Latin folk dance and French ballroom dance, and is a spirited but slow, close dance with a roll of the hips (a movement inherited from rumba) After Cole Porter wrote the song "Begin the Beguine", the dance became more widely known beyond the Caribbean. The song was introduced in
Do the Clam actress who had played the role as the title character's girlfriend in Ed Wood's 1953 surrealist film, "Glen or Glenda". The song was copyrighted on February 4, 1965 and published by Gladys Music, Inc. The B side of the 1965 single release was "You'll Be Gone", written by Red West, Elvis Presley, and Charlie Hodge in 1962. The B side reached no. 121 on "Billboard" and no. 35 on the Canadian charts. Both songs were on the Girl Happy soundtrack album."You'll Be Gone" was an attempt to create the same kind of song as "Begin the Beguine" after Elvis Presley's