“I Can’t Get Started” | Stories of Standards

“I Can’t Get Started” – composed by Vernon Duke with lyrics from Ira Gershwin - debuted in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 Broadway show, starring Bob Hope, Fanny Brice, and Eve Arden.

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Duke and Gershwin collaborated to produce the score for the musical, which marked Brice’s last Broadway appearance, as well as George Balanchine’s debut as a Broadway choreographer.

“We did about 30 songs for that show, of which about eleven or twelve were used. I was very proud of the stuff I did with Vernon,” Gershwin said.

Duke was “very talented, and very quick,” Gershwin said. He remembers that Duke would say, “‘Ira—the greatest song I ever wrote!’ And he’d sit down and play it for me.”

I’d say, ‘… Well … I …’ and then he’d say, ‘All right, I’ll write another one!’ He was very prolific, and he made the fastest piano copy I ever saw.”

Gershwin penned the words for “I Can’t Get Started” in the style of a “list” song, where the performer’s lyrics itemize lofty accomplishments and attributes in an attempt to win the heart of a reluctant suitor.

In Ziegfeld Follies, Bob Hope sings, “I’ve flown around the world in a plane/ I’ve settled revolutions in Spain/ And the North Pole I have charted/ Still I can’t get started with you.” Gershwin’s lyrics are dated by the topical references to the 1930s, yet of all the song’s subsequent performers, only Frank Sinatra saw fit to update the verse with modern references.

Following the end of the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 performances, ensuing recordings of “I Can’t Get Started” gained recognition on the recording charts.

Hal Kemp and His Orchestra’s version of “I Can’t Get Started” peaked at 14^th place on the charts, while a subsequent 1937 recording by Bunny Berigan and His Orchestra reached 10^th.

https://youtu.be/Ls33JN395OE