I Can't Get Started

"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, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and music by Vernon Duke (1936), that was first heard in the theatrical production Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 where it was sung by Bob Hope. Hal Kemp and his Orchestra recorded it at that time and it had a bit of popularity, rising briefly to 14th place on the recording charts. Probably the three most popular vintage recorded versions are those of Bunny Berigan, Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra.

"I Can't Get Started" is the plaintive song of a man who has achieved and won everything he could hope for, except the attention of the woman he desires. The rarely heard verse explains the situation ("I'm a glum one, it's explainable, I met someone unattainable, life's a bore, the world is my oyster no more...all the papers where I led the news, with my capers, soon will spread the news, Superman turns out to be flash in the pan.") It is most exceptional in that Gershwin’s lyrics ("I've flown around the world in a plane ... Settled revolutions in Spain ... Been consulted by Franklin D ... Greta Garbo has asked me to tea") are so topical and totally dated to the headlines of the 1930s that they break the mold for ballads. Yet they have such a clever, endearing charm that only a brave singer will dare to replace them (Sinatra dared with "...designed the latest IBM brain..."). The melody, true to the theme of the lyrics, starts out at a low pitch and rarely goes very far up. A moving melody line carries the descriptive lines of text, however, until it comes to the bridge, where the text turns more emotional. There the song borders on despondency.

After its initial splash and disappearance, "I Can't Get Started" took on a new life when Bunny Berigan, the star trumpeter with Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, started a band of his own in 1937 and chose it as his theme song. Berigan’s recording on trumpet is a virtuoso work that defines the range of the instrument, starting in the basement and climbing finally to the stratosphere. In addition to his range, Berigan displays here a mastery of expression, of emotional nuance, beyond what most trumpet players can only dream of: he takes the song all the way from despondence to victory.

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Wikipedia