DESCRIPTION:
From '' Stanley Black, His Piano And Latin Rhythms - Intimate Percussion ''
Label: Decca -- SKLA 4122
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Country: Australia
Released: 1961

Tracklist
A1 Mr. Wonderful
A2 Petite Fleur
A3 Theme From A Summer Place
A4 Mack The Knife
A5 Limelight
A6 Memories Are Made Of This
B1 The Poor People Of Paris
B2 On The Street Where You Live
B3 When I Fall In Love
B4 No Other Love
B5 Melodie D'Amour
B6 When The Saints Go Marching In

Conductor, Piano -- Stanley Black

(12 Big hits go Latin)

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"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.

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.

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.

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.
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.
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.

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".
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.

A much darker translation by Robert David MacDonald and Jeremy Sams into English was used for the 1994 Donmar Warehouse theatrical production in London.

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