In 1940, Moré returned to Havana. He lived from hand-to-mouth, playing in bars and cafés, passing the hat. His first breakthrough was winning a radio competition. In the early 1940s, radio station
CMQ had a program called
The Supreme Court of Art, in which a wide variety of artists participated. Winners were given contracts by unscrupulous businessmen, who exploited them. The less fortunate were treated to the humiliation of a loud church bell that brutally terminated their performances. In his first appearance, Moré had scarcely begun to sing when the bell sounded, and he was booed off the stage. Moré replaced Miguel Matamoros as lead singer, and the latter dedicated himself to leading the band. On 21 June 1945, Moré went with Conjunto Matamoros to
Mexico, where he performed in two of the most famous cabarets: the Montparnasse and the Río Rosa. He made several recordings. Conjunto Matamoros returned to Havana, but Moré remained in Mexico. Rafael Cueto said to him: "Fine, but just remember that they call burros 'bartolo' here. Stay, but change your name." "Ok," replied Moré, "from now on my name is Beny, Beny Moré." In
Mexico City, Moré made recordings for
RCA Victor, with
Perez Prado: "
Anabacoa", "Bonito y Sabroso", "Mucho Corazón", "Pachito Eché", "
La Múcura", "Rabo y Oreja" and other numbers. He recorded "Dolor Karabalí", which Moré considered his best composition recorded with
Pérez Prado, one he never wanted to re-record, also his recording in Mexico with Rafael de Paz Orchestra of "Bonito y Sabroso" was never recorded again by Moré, even though his famous composition of the months prior to leaving Mexico became in time the theme of his big band in Cuba. Moré was always reluctant to record newer versions of his hit songs, as he thought "you don't fix what's not broken". Moré and Prado recorded 28 songs in total, mostly mambos. Moré also recorded with the orchestra of Mariano Mercerón: "Me Voy Pa'l Pueblo", "Desdichado", "Mucho Corazon", "Ensalada de Mambo", "Rumberos de Ayer" and "Encantado de la Vida" with "El Conjunto de Lalo Montane", a Colombian singer and composer, with which he recorded in Mexico, conforming a famous duo called "The Phantom Duet" or "Dueto Fantasma". He also recorded with Mexican orchestras, specially with the one directed by Rafael de Paz; they recorded "Yiri Yiri Bon", "La Culebra", "Mata Siguaraya", "
Solamente Una Vez" and "Bonito y Sabroso", a mambo song where he praises the dancing skills of the Mexicans and claims that
Mexico City and
La Habana are sister cities. In this time Benny also recorded with the orchestra of Jesús "Chucho" Rodríguez. El "Chucho" was so impressed with Benny's musical ability that he referred to him as "El Bárbaro del Ritmo". Moré and other performers such as
Amalia Aguilar appeared as themselves in the Ernesto Cortázar-directed 1949 film
En cada puerto un amor, a film in the musical comedy and drama genres.
Return to Cuba in the late 1950s During the spring of 1952, around April, Moré returned to Cuba. He was a star in Mexico, the Dominican Republic,
Panama,
Colombia,
Brazil and
Puerto Rico, but virtually unknown on the island. His first Cuban recordings were with Mariano Mercerón & his Orchestra, including songs such as "Fiesta de Tambores", "Salomón", "La Chola", among others. Moré began alternating between performances in the Cadena Oriental radio station and trips to Havana to record at the RCA studios in CMQ Radiocentro. In Havana, Moré worked for the radio station
RHC-Cadena Azul, with the orchestra of Bebo Valdés, who introduced the new style called "batanga". The presenter of the show, Ibraín Urbino, presented him as
El Bárbaro del Ritmo. They offered him the opportunity to record with
Sonora Matancera, but he declined the offer because he did not care for the sound of the group. After the batanga fell out of fashion, Moré was contracted by
Radio Progreso with the orchestra of Ernesto Duarte Brito. In addition to the radio, he also performed at dances, cabarets and parties. When he sang in Havana's
Centro Gallego, people filled the sidewalks and the gardens of the Capitolio to hear him. In 1952, Moré made a recording with the
Orquesta Aragón with whom he would perform in dance halls. Orquesta Aragón was from
Cienfuegos and was having trouble breaking into Havana and Moré helped them in this way.
Banda Gigante and
Pacho Alonso, . All three were signed to the
RCA Victor subsidiary
Discuba. Also in 1952, Moré was told that Duarte Brito was not taking Moré to certain Saturday engagements because Moré was black. Moré was furious and brought the issue up to the RCA Records agent in Cuba (Maurico Conde). When nothing was done, Moré decided to form his own orchestra. The original lineup featured Ignacio Cabrera "Cabrerita" (piano); Miguel Franca, Santiago Peñalver, Roberto Barreto, Celso Gómez and Virgilio Vixama (saxophones);
Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros, Rigoberto "Rabanito" Jiménez and Domingo Corbacho (trumpets); José Miguel Gómez (trombone); Alberto Limonta (double bass); Tabaquito (congas); Clemente Piquero "Chicho" (bongos); Rolando Laserie (drums), and Fernando Álvarez and Enrique Benitez (vocals). The Banda was generally sixteen musicians, comparable in size with the orchestras of
Xavier Cugat and
Pérez Prado. Although Moré could not read music, he arranged material by singing parts to his arrangers, which included pianists Cabrerita and
Peruchín, as well as trombonist
Generoso Jiménez. Moré was offered a tour of
Europe,
France in particular, but he rejected it because of his
fear of flying; he had by that time been in three airplane accidents.
Final years In the aftermath of the
Cuban Revolution, many of Cuba's top musical figures emigrated, but Moré stayed in Cuba, among, as he said, "mi gente" (my people). ==Death==