"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. The song has become a popular standard recorded by many artists, including a US and UK number one hit for Bobby Darin in 1959.
Video Mack the Knife
The Threepenny Opera
A Moritat is a medieval version of the murder ballad performed by strolling minstrels. In The Threepenny Opera, the Moritat singer with his street organ introduces and closes the drama with the tale of the deadly Mackie Messer, or Mack the Knife, a character based on the dashing highwayman Macheath in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (who was in turn based on the historical thief Jack Sheppard). The Brecht-Weill version of the character was far more cruel and sinister, and has been transformed into a modern anti-hero.
The play opens with the Moritat singer comparing Macheath (unfavorably) with a shark, and then telling tales of his robberies, murders, rapes, and arson.
The song was a last-minute addition, inserted just before its premiere in 1928, because Harald Paulsen, the actor who played Macheath, demanded that Brecht and Weill add another number that would more effectively introduce his character. However, Weill and Brecht decided the song should not be sung by Macheath himself, opting instead to write the song for a street singer in keeping with the Moritat tradition. At the premiere, the song was sung by Kurt Gerron, who played Police Chief Brown. Weill also intended the Moritat to be accompanied by a barrel organ, which was to be played by the singer. At the premiere, though, the barrel organ failed, and the pit orchestra (a jazz band) had to quickly provide the accompaniment for the street singer.
French translation
The song was translated into French as "La complainte de Mackie" by André Mauprey and Ninon Steinhoff and popularized by Catherine Sauvage.
1954 Blitzstein translation
The song was first introduced to American audiences in 1933 in the first English-language production of The Threepenny Opera. The English lyrics were by Gifford Cochran and Jerrold Krimsky. That production, however, was not successful, closing after a run of only ten days. In the best known English translation, from the Marc Blitzstein 1954 version of The Threepenny Opera, which played Off-Broadway for over six years, the words are:
Blitzstein's translation provides the basis for most of the popular versions we know today, including those by Louis Armstrong (1956) and Bobby Darin (1959; Darin's lyrics differ slightly), and most subsequent swing versions. Weill's widow, Lotte Lenya, the star of both the original 1928 German production and the 1954 Blitzstein Broadway version, was present in the studio during Armstrong's recording. He spontaneously added her name to the lyrics ("Look out, Miss Lotte Lenya"), which already named several of Macheath's female victims. The Armstrong version was later used by Bobby Darin.
The rarely heard final verse--not included in the original play, but added by Brecht for the 1931 movie--expresses the theme and compares the glittering world of the rich and powerful with the dark world of the poor:
1976 Manheim-Willett extension ("Moritat")
In 1976, a brand-new interpretation of "Mack the Knife" by Ralph Manheim and John Willett opened on Broadway, later made into a movie version starring Raúl Juliá as "Mackie". This version, simply known as "Moritat", is an extension of the story with completely new lyrics that expound upon the tales of Macheath's trail of activity. Here is an excerpt:
This version was performed by Lyle Lovett on the soundtrack of the 1994 film Quiz Show. Darin's and Lovett's versions play over the opening and closing credits, respectively. This interpretation was later also recorded by Sting and Nick Cave in the later part of the 1990s.
1994 translation
A much darker translation by Robert David MacDonald and Jeremy Sams into English was used for the 1994 Donmar Warehouse theatrical production in London. The new translation attempted to recapture the original tone of the song:
Maps Mack the Knife
Popular song
"Mack the Knife" was introduced to the United States hit parade by Louis Armstrong in 1956, but the song is most closely associated with Bobby Darin, who recorded his version at Fulton Studios on West 40th Street, New York City, on December 19, 1958 (with Tom Dowd engineering the recording). Even though Darin was reluctant to release the song as a single, in 1959 it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and number six on the Black Singles chart, and earned him a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Dick Clark had advised Darin not to record the song because of the perception that, having come from an opera, it would not appeal to the rock and roll audience. In subsequent years, Clark recounted the story with good humor. Frank Sinatra, who recorded the song with Quincy Jones on his L.A. Is My Lady album, called Darin's the "definitive" version. Billboard ranked this version as the No. 2 song for 1959. Darin's version was No. 3 on Billboard's All Time Top 100. In 2003, the Darin version was ranked #251 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list. On BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, pop mogul Simon Cowell named "Mack the Knife" the best song ever written. Darin's version of the song was featured in the movie What Women Want. Both Armstrong and Darin's versions were inducted by the Library of Congress in the National Recording Registry in 2016.
Brecht's original German language version was appropriated for a series of humorous and surreal blackout skits by television pioneer Ernie Kovacs, showing, between skits, the soundtrack displayed on an oscilloscope.
Ella Fitzgerald made a famous live recording in 1960 (released on Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife) in which, after forgetting the lyrics after the first verse, she improvised new lyrics in a performance that earned her a Grammy Award. Robbie Williams also recorded the song on his 2001 album Swing When You're Winning, and performed it as the first song after the arrival of the Queen during the Diamond Jubilee Concert in 2012, referencing Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
Other notable versions include performances by Dave Van Ronk, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Tony Bennett, Marianne Faithfull, Nick Cave, Brian Setzer, Kevin Spacey, Westlife, and Michael Bublé. Swiss band The Young Gods radically reworked the song in industrial style, while jazz legend Sonny Rollins recorded an instrumental version entitled simply "Moritat" in 1956. A 1959 instrumental performance by Bill Haley & His Comets was the final song the group recorded for Decca Records. Deana Martin recorded "Mack The Knife" on her second studio album, Volare, released in 2009 by Big Fish Records.
Tito Puente also recorded an instrumental version. Salsa musician Rubén Blades recorded an homage entitled "Pedro Navaja". Brazilian composer Chico Buarque, in his loose adaptation of Threepenny Opera (Ópera do Malandro), made two versions called "O Malandro" and "O Malandro No 2", with lyrics in Portuguese. Liberace regularly performed a variant in which he played the song successively in five styles: as originally written, in the style of a Johann Strauss waltz, as a music box, in a bossa nova rhythm, and in what Liberace considered a popular American style.
The chorus to the song "Haifisch" ("Shark") by Rammstein is inspired by "Mack the Knife".
Parodies
The song has been parodied numerous times. Steve Martin parodied "Mack the Knife" in his opening monologue to the premiere of Saturday Night Live's third season in 1977. In the mid-1980s, McDonald's introduced Mac Tonight, a character whose signature song was based on "Mack the Knife". There was a skit on The Muppet Show, where the characters play upon the sinister nature of the lyrics. American political parodists the Capitol Steps used the tune for their song "Pack the Knife" on their 2002 album When Bush Comes to Shove.
Selective list of recorded versions
- 1928/29 Bertolt Brecht
- 1953 Harry James with Buddy Rich on drums on the album Saturday Night Swing (entitled "Moritat"), and again in 1956 on the album Harry James and His New Jazz Band, Vol. 2
- 1954 Gerald Price, Broadway cast recording of The Threepenny Opera
- 1955 Lotte Lenya on the album Lotte Lenya Sings Berlin Theatre Songs of Kurt Weill
- 1956 Louis Armstrong No. 20 hit single
- Dick Hyman, instrumental
- Sonny Rollins, instrumental (titled "Moritat" after the original title in German)
- Billy Vaughn, instrumental
- 1957 Bing Crosby with Bob Scobey on the album Bing with a Beat
- 1959 Bobby Darin, U.S. and UK #1
- 1959 Eartha Kitt on the album The Fabulous Eartha Kitt
- Bill Haley & His Comets on the album Strictly Instrumental
- Kenny Dorham on the album Quiet Kenny
- 1960 Jimmy Smith on the album Crazy! Baby
- 1960 Ella Fitzgerald on the album Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife
- 1963 Peggy Lee on the album I'm a Woman, and in 1977 on the album Live in London
- 1964 Dave Van Ronk on the albums Dave Van Ronk and the Ragtime Jug Stompers, in 1967 on Live at Sir George Williams University, and in 1992 on Let No One Deceive You
- 1964 Ramaz Chkhikvadze, in Georgian, for The Threepenny Opera
- 1965 Ben Webster on the album Stormy Weather
- 1968 The Doors on the album Live in Stockholm
- 1973 Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians on the album Every Night is New Year's Eve with Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians: Live at the Waldorf Astoria
- 1981 The Psychedelic Furs on the B-side of the single "Pretty in Pink", the 1994 album Here Came The Psychedelic Furs: B Sides and Lost Grooves, and the 2002 re-release of their self-titled first album
- 1984 Frank Sinatra on the album L.A. Is My Lady
- 1985 Sting on the album Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill
- 1986 Dagmar Krause on the album Supply and Demand
- 1988 Ute Lemper on the album Ute Lemper sings Kurt Weill
- 1990 Roger Daltrey on the film soundtrack Mack the Knife
- Kenny Garrett on the album African Exchange Student
- 1991 The Young Gods on the album Play Kurt Weill
- 1994 Lyle Lovett on the soundtrack to Quiz Show
- Frank Sinatra with Jimmy Buffett on the album Duets II
- 1995 Nick Cave on the album September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill
- 1997 Marianne Faithfull on the album 20th Century Blues
- 1999 Max Raabe on the album Die Dreigroschenoper, Ensemble Modern
- 2000 The Brian Setzer Orchestra on the album Vavoom!
- 2001 Robbie Williams on the album Swing When You're Winning
- 2004 Michael Bublé on the album Come Fly with Me
- 2004 Kevin Spacey for the movie and the soundtrack to Beyond the Sea
See also
- List of 1920s jazz standards
- List of songs banned by the BBC
- List of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 1950s
References
External links
- "Mackie Messer" sung by Lotte Lenya on YouTube (3:39)
- Bertolt Brecht sings "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" on YouTube (2:48)
- Bobby Darin "Mack the Knife" website
- "What's the story behind 'Mack the Knife'?", The Straight Dope, 1 April 2004
- ibdb.com info on the 7 Broadway productions
- Steve Martin's comedy monologue on Saturday Night Live parodying "Mack the Knife"
- Lyrics
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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