Jazz Pick Of The Week: Bunny Berigan

Bunny Berigan's theme song and one of most famous recordings of Big Band era. "I can't get started" was little known 1929 Broadway show tune till Bunny recorded it twice, first in 1936 with a six piece combo and again in 1937 with his full 14 piece big band. This is the shorter, more intimate 1936 version (despite link label stating 1937 as year recorded) . Bunny made only a handful of vocals to go along with his amazing trumpet work on over 600 sides recorded between 1930 and 1941, but his amateurish, high pitched, nasally voice is perfect for this lament about a guy whose achieved everything but can't impress his love interest. Bunny did get started early on with the bottle and couldn't stop till it killed him at 33 in 1942. But you won't find one clinker on his prodigious recorded output.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyAoTLJAHOk