I Can't Get Started

Vernon Duke, born Vladimir Dukelsky, was a Russian exile who arrived in New York in 1921 and initially pursued classical ambitions, premiering symphonies under Serge Koussevitzky before the Gershwin brothers steered him toward popular songwriting. The melody for I Can't Get Started originated as an unused song called Face the Music with Me, which Duke offered to Ira Gershwin, who fitted it with new lyrics about romantic frustration. The song premiered in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 at the Winter Garden Theatre on January 30, 1936, a revue produced by the Schubert brothers using Florenz Ziegfeld's name posthumously. Bob Hope introduced it comedically, singing to Eve Arden, and its initial sheet music sales were modest. The tune's fortunes changed when Bunny Berigan recorded it in 1937 for Victor, adding a trumpet cadenza introduction that transformed the ballad into a concerto-like showcase. That recording reached number ten on the charts, became Berigan's theme song, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1975. Billie Holiday recorded it in 1938 with Lester Young on tenor saxophone. After Berigan's death in 1942, Young revisited the tune as a slow, eulogic tribute alongside Nat King Cole and Red Callender, departing sharply from the swing treatments that had prevailed. The composition features an ostinato bass line that repeats throughout, lending a hypnotic, grounding pulse beneath its wistful, ascending melody, a quality that continues to attract improvisers across generations.