Artie Shaw was the rival of Benny Goodman in the Swing era. With a different style of playing, his sound on clarinet was more liquid than Goodman's sound. After playing in different orchestras in the late 1920s and '30s, he formed his own orchestra in 1936, and he added a string quartet to the Big Band. In 1938, he had a famous hit with the recording of the Cole Porter song "Begin the Beguine." After months of success and popularity, he dissolved his band in 1939. The year after, he appeared with a new band.
In the 1950s, he went into a semi-retirement and wrote two books: "The trouble with Cinderella" and "I love you, I hate you, drop dead." His last recordings were in 1954 with a small group with Hank Jones on piano and others. After this, he retired from the music scene, except for a brief appearance for a week in the 1980s.
