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I Can't Get Started

{{Infobox song

| name = I Can't Get Started

| cover =

| alt =

| type =

| written =

| published = 1936 by Chappell & Co.

| writer =

| composer = Vernon Duke

| lyricist = Ira Gershwin

}}

"I Can't Get Started", also known as "I Can't Get Started with You" or "I Can't Get Started (With You)", is a popular song. It was written in 1936 by Vernon Duke (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) and introduced that year in the revue Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, where it was performed by Bob Hope and Eve Arden.{{cite book | last=Gershwin | first=Ira | title=Lyrics on Several Occasions | edition=First | location=New York | publisher=Knopf | year=1959 | oclc=538209}}

Hal Kemp and his Orchestra recorded it and it had a bit of popularity, rising briefly to 14th place on the recording charts.{{cite book|last1=Whitburn|first1=Joel|title=Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954|date=1986|publisher=Record Research Inc|location=Wisconsin, USA|isbn=0-89820-083-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/joelwpopmemories00whit/page/253 253]|url=https://archive.org/details/joelwpopmemories00whit/page/253}} Bunny Berigan's 1937 version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Recordings

Ira Gershwin noted in 1959 that "The sheet-music sale of the song never amounted to much... but an early recording by Bunny Berigan—considered by jazz devotees a sort of classic in its field—may have been a challenge (or incentive) for the great number of recordings that have followed. Not a year has gone by, in the past fifteen or so, that up to a dozen or more new recordings haven't been issued."

=Bunny Berigan=

Bunny Berigan, a trumpeter with Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, started a band in 1937 and chose "I Can't Get Started" as his theme song.Simon, George T., The Big Bands, 4th Edition, Introduction by Frank Sinatra, Schirmer Books, New York, 1981 p. 88 He had been performing the song during the previous year at a club in New York City.{{Cite web|url=https://swingandbeyond.com/2016/10/05/i-cant-get-started-1937-bunny-berigan/|title="I Can't Get Started" (1937) Bunny Berigan|first=Mike|last=Zirpolo|website=Swingandbeyond.com|date=October 5, 2016|access-date=May 31, 2021}} He made a recording for Vocalion on April 13, 1936, {{cite web|title=The Online Discographical Project|url=http://www.78discography.com/VOC3000.htm|website=78discography.com|access-date=June 3, 2017}} but gradually he made subtle changes in the arrangement. After forming his band, he recorded "I Can't Get Started" again, this time for Victor.{{cite web|title=The Online Discographical Project|url=http://www.78discography.com/vic36000.html|website=78discography.com|access-date=June 3, 2017}}

Jazz trumpeter Dick Sudhalter noted the changes that had been made since the Vocalion recording. "An introduction—an extended cadenza over four different sustained chords in the key of C—had been added by this time, but otherwise Berigan's routine had not changed since the Vocalion recording. But whereas the Vocalion comes across as a virtuoso performance of a great song, the Victor version presents itself as a kind of concerto, a tour de force for a trumpeter of imagination and daring to have an impeccable command of his instrument."{{cite book|last1=Sudhalter|first1=Richard M.|title=Giants of Jazz - Bunny Berigan|date=1982|publisher=Time-Life Records|page=43}}

The Berigan band's recordings of "I Can't Get Started" and "The Prisoner's Song" were issued together on the twelve-inch Victor record 36208, and were a part of an album of four such records entitled A Symposium of Swing.{{Cite web|url=http://www.45worlds.com/78rpm/record/c28|title=78 Record: Various Artists - Sing, Sing, Sing - Part 1 (1937)|access-date=May 31, 2021|website=45worlds.com}} An edited version was created by Victor on December 4, 1937, and issued as 25728A.{{cite web|title=The Online Discographical Project|url=http://www.78discography.com/vic25500.html|website=78discography.com|access-date=June 3, 2017}}

The recording was a hit and reached number 10 on the chart.{{cite book|last1=Whitburn|first1=Joel|title=Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954|date=1986|publisher=Record Research|location=Wisconsin|isbn=0-89820-083-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/joelwpopmemories00whit/page/52 52]|url=https://archive.org/details/joelwpopmemories00whit/page/52}} In 1975, Berigan's 1937 recording of "I Can't Get Started" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.{{cite web |title=Grammy Hall of Fame |url=https://www.grammy.com/grammys/awards/hall-of-fame |website=Grammy.com |date=18 October 2010 |access-date=March 21, 2020}}

Billie Holiday recorded it on September 15, 1938.{{cite web|title=Billie Holiday Discography|url=http://www.jazzdisco.org/billie-holiday/discography/|website=Jazzdisco.org|access-date=June 2, 2017}}

=Other recordings=

  • Rickie Lee Jones - It's Like This (2000) {{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/its-like-this-mw0000094246|title=It's Like This - Rickie Lee Jones|access-date=May 31, 2025|website=AllMusic}}

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

Further reading

  • {{cite book | last=Furia | first=Philip | title=Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist | edition=First | location=New York | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1996 | isbn=0-19-508299-0 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/iragershwinartof0000furi }}

External links

  • [http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-0/icantgetstarted.htm "I Can't Get Started (with You)"] at [http://www.jazzstandards.com JazzStandards.com]
  • [https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/bobhope/images/vc48as1.jpg Ira Gershwin's manuscript for "I Can't Get Started" at The Library of Congress]

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Category:1936 songs

Category:1930s jazz standards

Category:Songs written for films

Category:Songs with music by Vernon Duke

Category:Songs with lyrics by Ira Gershwin

Category:Al Hirt songs

Category:Billie Holiday songs

Category:Frank Sinatra songs

Category:Nancy Wilson (jazz singer) songs

Category:Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients

Category:Jazz compositions in B-flat major

Category:Real Book Song

Category:Torch songs