The play opens with the moritat singer comparing Macheath (unfavorably) with a shark, and then telling tales of his robberies, murders, rapes, and arson.
German language>German | English language>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. |
Name | A Theme From The Threepenny Opera (Mack The Knife) |
---|---|
Cover | Mack The Knife Coronet.jpg |
Artist | Louis Armstrong |
B-side | "Back O' Town Blues" |
Released | 1956 |
Format | 7" |
Recorded | Los Angeles, CA28 September, 1955 |
Genre | Jazz |
Length | 3:25 |
Writer | Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, English lyrics Marc Blitzstein, arr. Turk Murphy |
Label | Columbia 40587Coronet KS-349 |
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 |
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.
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.
Name | Mack the Knife |
---|---|
Cover | Mack the Knife Bobby Darin.jpg |
Artist | Bobby Darin |
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 | Kurt Weill, Bertolt BrechtMarc Blitzstein, Turk Murphy (English version) |
Last single | "Dream Lover"(1959) |
This single | "Mack the Knife"(1959) |
Next single | "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. 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". 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".
Category:1928 songs Category:1959 singles Category:Songs with music by Kurt Weill Category:Songs with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht Category:Songs with lyrics by Marc Blitzstein Category:Bill Haley songs Category:Blake Lewis songs Category:Bobby Darin songs Category:Eartha Kitt songs Category:Ella Fitzgerald songs Category:Frank Sinatra songs Category:Louis Armstrong songs Category:Robbie Williams songs Category:Sting songs Category:Westlife songs Category:Number-one singles in Australia Category:Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Category:UK Singles Chart number-one singles Category:Grammy Award for Record of the Year Category:Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients Category:1920s jazz standards Category:Pop standards
cs:Mackie Messer de:Die Moritat von Mackie Messer es:Mackie Messer it:Die Moritat von Mackie Messer he:מקי סכינאי pl:Mackie Majcher pt:Mack the Knife ru:Mack the Knife sv:Mack the Knife tr:Mack the KnifeThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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