Musicologist and composer Alec Wilder described it in his book American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900–1950 as "a maverick, an unprecedented experiment and one which, to this day, after hearing it hundreds of times, I cannot sing or whistle or play from start to finish without the printed music ... about the sixtieth measure I find myself muttering another title, End the Beguine."
At first, the song gained little popularity, perhaps because of its length and unconventional form. Josephine Baker danced to it in her return to America in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, but neither she nor the song were successful. Two years later, however, bandleader Artie Shaw recorded an arrangement of the song, an extended swing orchestra version, in collaboration with his arranger and orchestrator, Jerry Gray. After signing a new recording contract with RCA Victor Shaw chose "Begin the Beguine" to be the first of six tunes he would record with his new 14 piece band at this, his first recording session with RCA. The session was held at RCA's "Studio 2" on East 24th Street in New York on July 24, 1938. Until then, Shaw's band had been having a tough time finding an identity and maintaining its existence without having had any popular hits of significance; his previous recording contract with Brunswick had lapsed at the end of 1937 without being renewed. RCA's pessimism with the whole idea of recording the long tune "that nobody could remember from beginning to end anyway" resulted in it being released on the "B" side of the record "Indian Love Call", issued by Bluebird Records as catalog number B-7746 B. Shaw's persistence paid off, though, when "Begin the Beguine" became a best-selling record in 1938, peaking at no. 3, skyrocketing Shaw and his band to fame and popularity. The recording became one of the most famous and popular of the entire Swing Era. Subsequent re-releases by RCA Victor and other releases on LPs, tapes and CDs have kept the recording readily available continuously ever since its initial release.
Xavier Cugat and his orchestra recorded one of the first versions in 1935, with a stronger Latin sound than later versions. The song was recorded as an instrumental, although a vocalist sings the title and the beginning and end of the song. This recording reached the charts of the day.
Leslie Hutchinson recorded a version on April 3, 1940. This recording was given to the Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba, who later asked that it be played seven times at his tomb when his body was laid to rest, which occurred a week after his death on January 31, 1969.
Eddie Heywood and his orchestra recorded a single version in 1944 and this reached the USA charts in 1945 peaking in the No. 16 spot.
Frank Sinatra recorded a version on February 24, 1946 and this reached the Billboard charts in the No.23 position.
Johnny Mathis recorded a popular disco version in 1978.
Julio Iglesias's 1981 version reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in December 1981.
Melora Hardin performed the song in the 1991 film, The Rocketeer. It was featured on both the original and expanded motion picture soundtracks, released in 1991 and 2016 respectively.
Pete Townshend delivered a version of it on his demo album Who Came First released in 2006.
