French translation

The song was translated into French as "La complainte de Mackie" by André Mauprey and Ninon Steinhoff and popularized by Catherine Sauvage.^[7]

1954 Blitzstein translation

The song was 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.^[8] That production, however, was not successful, closing after a run of only ten days. The best-known English translation of the song comes from the Marc Blitzstein's 1954 version of The Threepenny Opera, which played Off-Broadway for over six years.^[9] The opening stanza reads:

Blitzstein's version is a loose translation of the German lyrics; some lines on the crimes of Macheath have been omitted, and he included a verse not in the original, giving a list of female characters in the drama.^[11] The lyrics were further sanitized in the original Broadway cast recording (with Gerald Price as the ballad singer) with two stanzas on Macheath's assaults on women replaced.^[12] Blitzstein's translation provides the basis for most of the popular versions heard today, including those by Louis Armstrong (1955) and Bobby Darin (1959; Darin's lyrics differ slightly), and most subsequent swing versions. In Armstrong's recording, the name of Weill's widow, Lotte Lenya, who was the star of both the original 1928 German production and the 1954 Blitzstein Broadway version, was added to the lyrics ("Look out, Miss Lotte Lenya").^[6] The Armstrong version was later used by Bobby Darin.

1976 Manheim–Willett extension ("Moritat")

In 1976, a brand-new interpretation of "Mack the Knife" by Ralph Manheim and John Willett was used in the New York Shakespeare Festival's production of The Threepenny Opera, starring Raul Julia as Macheath. 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 version plays over the opening credits and Lovett's over the closing credits. This interpretation was performed by Sting on Hal Willner's 1985 Weill tribute album Lost in the Stars and also recorded by Nick Cave in the late 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:

Louis Armstrong version

A number of early artists recorded the song, including the cast recording and a jazz version by Sidney Bechet,^[14] but it was Louis Armstrong who first introduced the vocal version of "Mack the Knife" to the United States hit parade. George Avakian, a producer at Columbia Records, whose wife Anahid Ajemian gave a recital of Weill's Violin Concerto in 1954, became interested in Weill's music, in particular the song from the off-Broadway production of Three Penny Opera that he had seen. He spent a few months trying to interest various jazz artists from his label to record "Mack the Knife",^[15] eventually persuading Turk Murphy to record. Murphy also suggested Armstrong to Avakian for the recording,^[6] and made an arrangement of the song for him.^[16]

Armstrong recorded an instrumental together with a vocal version on September 28, 1955, while Murphy also recorded both instrumental version and vocal versions himself as well as one in German with Lotte Lenya on September 22, 1955.^[14] The lyrics of Armstrong's version were based on the Broadway cast recording, but Avakian suggested changing Blitzstein's lyrics by using the word "drooping" instead of "dropping", as well as including the name of Lotte Lenya in the recording.^[6] Armstrong gave a shout-out in the song to Lenya who was invited to the recording session by Avakian. Lenya also joined Armstrong to record a duet version which was not released commercially.^[17] Armstrong's released version was spliced together from the instrumental recording and the vocal version.^[14]

The song titled "A Theme from The Threepenny Opera (Mack the Knife)" was released in late 1955 together with an instrumental version by Murphy, both by Columbia.^[15] The song, however, faced an initial ban on the song by radio stations for lyrics perceived as glorification of a criminal, although it sold well.^[17] Armstrong's recording reached Billboard's Top 100 chart in February 1956, peaking at No 20 on March 17, 1956.^[18][19] An instrumental version released by Dick Hyman charted higher.^[17] Armstrong's version also reached No. 8 in the UK.^[20]

In 1997, the 1955 recording of the song by Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars on Columbia Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.^[21]

Armstrong's recording was inducted by the Library of Congress in the National Recording Registry in 2016.^[22]

Bobby Darin version

The song, however, is most closely associated with Bobby Darin, who recorded his version on December 19, 1958 for his album That's All. Darin had performed the song in his act before, and wanted to include the song in an album of standards. The song was arranged by Richard Wess.^[25] Musicians on the song included Don Lamond on drums, Milt Hinton on bass, and Doc Severinsen on trumpet.^[26]with Tom Dowd engineering the recording.^[27] Darin performed with the song lyrics similar to Armstrong's version with small changes, such as using the word "babe" instead of "dear', and he ended the song with a reprise of the sixth verse instead of the first.^[14] Darin recorded the song in around three takes, performing the song with an up-tempo bouncy beat^[28] and modulating up a semitone every verse starting with the third verse, from B-flat to B to C to D-flat to E-flat.^[6]

The song was released as a single in August 1959, even though Darin was reluctant to release the song as a single.^[29] The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and number six on the Black Singles Chart.^[30][31] It was listed as a Cash Box Top 100 number one single in 1959 for eight weeks.^[32] 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; he subsequently acknowledged his error.^[33]

Ella Fitzgerald version

On February 13, 1960,^[51] Ella Fitzgerald performed the song live for the first time in a concert at Deutschlandhalle in Berlin. Fitzgerald, however, forgot the lyrics after the first stanza, and she improvised new lyrics, including name-checking Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin.^[52] The song was included on the album Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife released in July.^[53]

The song was released as a single in April 1960.^[54] This version made the US Hot 100, peaking at No. 27 in June 1960.^[55] This song was Fitzgerald's best performing song in the 1960s, and she included the song in all her subsequent shows.^[56]

The performance earned Fitzgerald a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 3rd Annual Grammy Awards.^[57]

Other versions

An instrumental version of "Mack the Knife" titled "Moritat – A Theme From "The Three Penny Opera"" was recorded by Dick Hyman,^[6] and it performed better than Louis Armstrong's vocal version that charted around the same time, reaching No. 9 on Billboard's Top 100.^[62] It also reached No. 9 on the Cashbox chart,^[63] as well as No. 9 on the UK chart in 1956.^[64] A number of other instrumental versions also appeared on The Top 100 at the same time: Richard Hayman and Jan August (No. 12),^[65] Lawrence Welk (No. 31),^[66] Billy Vaughn (No. 37), and Les Paul and Mary Ford (No.49).^[65] Billy Vaughn also reached No. 12 in the UK.^[67]

Frank Sinatra added the song to his repertoire in 1984 in an arrangement by Frank Foster;^[6] In the performance included in his album L.A. Is My Lady, Sinatra similarly name-checked Armstrong and Darin, as well as adding members of his backing band.^[52] Sinatra and Jimmy Buffett recorded a duet of the song for Sinatra's final album Duets II (1994).

Nick Cave and Spanish Fly performed the song for the video September Songs – The Music of Kurt Weill in 1994, released as an album in 1997.^[68] while Sting and Dominic Muldowney recorded it for the 1985 tribute album Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill.^[69]

Other notable versions include performances by Mark Lanegan, Dave Van Ronk, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Tony Bennett, Anita O'Day (in an arrangement by Jimmy Giuffre), Bing Crosby, Marianne Faithfull, Brian Setzer, Dr. John, Ute Lemper, King Kurt,^[70] Kevin Spacey, The Psychedelic Furs, David Cassidy (in At the Copa), Westlife, and Michael Bublé. Swiss band The Young Gods radically reworked the song in industrial style on their 1991 album The Young Gods Play Kurt Weill, 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. Ray Conniff recorded a version for orchestra and chorus in 1962 for the album, The Happy Beat. Deana Martin recorded "Mack the Knife" on her second studio album, Volare, released in 2009 by Big Fish Records. Robbie Williams recorded the song on his 2001 album Swing When You're Winning.^[71] Hildegard Knef recorded a German version, "Mackie Messer".^[72]

Salsa musician Rubén Blades recorded an homage entitled "Pedro Navaja" (Razor Pete).^[73] 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 performed the song in five styles: as originally written, in the style of the "Blue Danube Waltz", as a music box, in a bossa nova rhythm, and in boogie-woogie.^[74]