Cole Porter: Begin the Beguine - Joe Loss & Chick Henderson, 1939

Joe Loss and His Band, Voc. Chick Henderson Begin the Beguine (Cole Porter), Regal Zonophone 1939

Chick HENDERSON (born Henderson Rowntree) one of Britains most popular singers in the late 1930s. He was born in Hartlepool, North England in 1912. As a boy Chick loved to sing and was an active member of a church choir. He was heard by Harry Leader and given an audition, who immediately signed him up in 1935. Chick started recording in 1935 and made three sides with a band for the Eclipse Label. In August 1935 he made his first broadcast on the BBC and a few months later he joined the Joe Loss Band and became his principal singer. Chick and Joe Loss went on to record over 250 tracks. Chick Henderson was a shy and modest person who loved to spend quiet weekends with his family and friends, but at least once a month he was in the recording studio with Joe Loss, usually putting down about four numbers each session. Very few recordings required more than one take. A tall, handsome man with a rich, strong vocal delivery, Chick quickly became a great favorite among young women who formed his core audience. He appeared on postcards and magazine covers. His best seller was „Begin The Beguine which sold over a million copies, the only recording by a 1930s vocalist to achieve such a triumph. In 1940 Chick recorded also with Harry Roy, with Organ Dance Band & Me, and with London Piano Accordion Band. His last recording session was in 1942 in Glasgow with Joe Loss.
One year following the start of World War II in September 1939, he began serving in the Merchant Navy. He survived two torpedo attacks on his ships, but after four years of service, sustained fatal wounds in Southsea from flying bomb shrapnel. He died in 1944 at age 31, after a recording career of only seven years.

Joe LOSS (Joshua Alexander Loss) b. 1909 in Spitalfields, London d. 1990. He was the youngest of four children. His father Israel who was a cabinet-maker, and his mother Ada, were Russian Jews. Joe was educated at Jews' Free School, Trinity College of Music and the London College of Music. He started violin lessons at the age of seven and later played violin at the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool. In 1935 he started to lead his own orchestra, which in a short time made his name synonymous with the very best in dance band music. Loved and respected by his public and profession alike, he had a style and musical policy that kept him at the very top of the big band world for 60 years.