Mack the Knife

For other uses, see Mack the Knife (disambiguation).

"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.

The Threepenny Opera

A moritat (from mori meaning "deadly" and tat meaning "deed") 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.

Original German text

The song was inserted in the play shortly before its première in 1928, because Harald Paulsen, who created the role of Macheath, wished a more effective introduction of his character.^[1] The original German text begins as follows:^[2]

German	Literal English translation
Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne, Und die trägt er im Gesicht. Und Macheath, der hat ein Messer, Doch das Messer sieht man nicht.	And the shark, it has teeth, And it wears them in its face. And Macheath, he has a knife, But the knife one doesn't see.

At the 1928 première, the Moritat was sung by Kurt Gerron, who was a noted film and stage actor in Germany, and who also played the part of the Police Chief Brown. Weill also intended for the Moritat to be accompanied by a barrel organ, which was to be played by the singer.^[3]

1954 Blitzstein translation

"A Theme From The Threepenny Opera (Mack The Knife)"
Single by Louis Armstrong
B-side	"Back O' Town Blues"
Released	1956
Format	7"
Recorded	Los Angeles, CA 28 September, 1955
Genre	Jazz
Length	3:25
Label	Columbia 40587 Coronet KS-349 (pictured, reached Nº1 in Australia)
Writer(s)	Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, English lyrics Marc Blitzstein, arr. Turk Murphy

The song was first introduced to American audiences in the first English-language production of The Threepenny Opera, which played on Broadway in 1933. The English lyrics were by Gifford Cochran and Jerrold Krimsky.^[4] However, that production was a complete flop and the song did not catch on. In the best known English translation, from the Marc Blitzstein 1954 version of The Threepenny Opera, which played Off-Broadway for well over six years,^[5] the words are:

Oh the shark has pretty teeth dear,

And he shows them pearly white

Just a jack-knife has Macheath dear

And he keeps it out of sight.

This is the version popularized 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, which already named several of Macheath's female victims.

The rarely heard final verse—not included in the original play, but added by Brecht for the 1930 movie—expresses the theme, and compares the glittering world of the rich and powerful with the dark world of the poor:

German	English translation
Denn die einen sind im Dunkeln Und die andern sind im Licht Und man siehet die im Lichte Die im Dunkeln sieht man nicht	There are some who are in darkness And the others are in light And you see the ones in brightness Those in darkness drop from sight

1976 Manheim-Willett translation

In 1976 the version translated by Ralph Manheim and John Willett opened on Broadway, later made into a movie version starring Raúl Juliá as "Mackie". Here is an excerpt:

See the shark with teeth like razors

All can read his open face

And Macheath has got a knife, but

Not in such an obvious place

This is the version later performed by Sting and Nick Cave. It is also the version performed by Lyle Lovett on the soundtrack of the film Quiz Show (1994)—the same movie features Darin's rendition over the opening credits.

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:

Though the shark's teeth may be lethal

Still you see them white and red

But you won't see Mackie's flick knife

Cause he slashed you and you're dead

Crimes of Macheath

The song attributes many crimes to Macheath:

• A dead man in London, on the Strand
• A rich man, Schmul Meier, disappeared for good and possibly robbed
• Jenny Towler, killed with a knife in the chest
• A cabbie, Alfred Gleet, missing and presumed dead
• Seven children killed in an arson fire
• Rape of an underage widow (minderjährige Witwe) in her bed

The arson, rape and disappearance of the cabbie were omitted from the original cast recording of the Blitzstein version, but remain intact in the libretto.

Popular song

"Mack the Knife"
Single by Bobby Darin
from the album That's All
B-side	"Was There a Call for Me"
Released	August 1959
Format	7"
Recorded	December 19, 1958 at Fulton Studios, New York City
Genre	Pop, jazz
Length	3:11 (Album version) 3:04 (Single version)
Label	Atco (U.S.) London (UK)
Writer(s)	Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht Marc Blitzstein, Turk Murphy (English version)
Bobby Darin singles chronology
"Dream Lover" (1959) "Mack the Knife" (1959) "Beyond the Sea" (1960)

"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). In 1959 Darin's version 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 wouldn't appeal to the rock & roll audience. To this day, Clark recounts the story with good humor. Frank Sinatra, who recorded the song with Jimmy Buffett, called Darin's the "definitive" version. Darin's version hit #3 on Billboard's All Time Top 100.^[6] 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.

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 vibrating soundtrack line.

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. Other notable versions include performances by 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. Tito Puente also recorded an instrumental version. Salsa musician Rubén Blades recorded an homage entitled "Pedro Navaja".^[7] Brazilian composer Chico Buarque, in his adaptation of Threepenny Opera (Ópera do Malandro), made two versions called "A Volta do Malandro" and "O Malandro No. 2", with lyrics in Portuguese.

The song has been parodied many 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." American political parodists the Capitol Steps used the tune for their song "Pack the Knife" on their 2002 album When Bush Comes to Shove.

The chorus to the song "Haifisch" by Rammstein is inspired by "Mack the Knife".

Selective list of recorded versions

• 1928/29 Bertolt Brecht
• 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 #20 hit single
  • Dick Hyman, instrumental
  • Billy Vaughn, instrumental
  • Sonny Rollins, jazz instrumental, on the album Saxophone Colossus
• 1957 Bing Crosby with Bob Scobey on the album Bing with a Beat
• 1958 Wolfgang Neuss with the Sender Freies Berlin Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Wilhem Brückner Rüggenburg (supervised and performed by Lotte Lenya) on the album Die Dreigroschenoper (CBS)
• 1959 Bobby Darin, U.S. and UK #1
  • Bill Haley & His Comets on the album Strictly Instrumental
  • Kenny Dorham on the album Quiet Kenny
• 1960 Ella Fitzgerald on the album Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife
• 1963 Eartha Kitt as a single
• 1964 Miloš Kopecký in Czech musical Lemonade Joe (Limonádový Joe aneb Koňská opera)
  • 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
• 1965 Ben Webster on the album Stormy Weather
• 1968 The Doors on the album Live In Stockholm
• 1977 Peggy Lee on the album Live in London
• 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
• 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
• 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

See also

• List of 1920s jazz standards
• List of songs banned by the BBC

References

1. ^ Henneberg, Fritz, ed (1985) (in German). Brecht-Liederbuch. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. p. 388. ISBN 3-518-37716-7. 
2. ^ "Die Moritat von Mackier Messer", full text
3. ^ Farneth, David (2000). Kurt Weill: A Life in Pictures and Documents. Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press. pp. 75–78. ISBN 0-87951-721-2. 
4. ^ Threepenny Opera | IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information
5. ^ Threepenny Opera | IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information
6. ^ The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs (10–01) (July 2008)^{[dead link]}
7. ^ Pedro Navaja on MaestraVida.com

External links

• Bertolt Brecht sings "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" on YouTube (2:48)
• Everything you ever wanted to know about "Mack the Knife"
• Bobby Darin "Mack the Knife" website
• What's the story behind "Mack the Knife"? (The Straight Dope)
• ibdb.com info on the 7 Broadway productions
• Steve Martin's comedy monologue on Saturday Night Live parodying "Mack the Knife"