Thursday December 9, “Mack the Knife” Bobby Darin (#4)

Billboard’s number four Greatest Hit of All Time originated in the 1928 Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht German play The Threepenny Opera. "Mack" is Macheath, a fairly unpleasant character, capable of truly evil deeds. The light melody might make this feel like an upbeat song, but it contrasts sharply with the lyrics, which are about a violent murderer.

Bobby Darin's teen idol career started with the top ten hit “Splish Splash”  which was just a bit less serious than “Mack the Knife’.  In fact “Mack…” was such a departure for Darin that American Bandstand host and cultural icon Dick Clark, and Darin himself felt it might be a career ending direction.

But Darin took the risk and attacked the song with complete showbiz menace and turned it into a challenging tune because unlike the Brecht-Weill original, which remains in the same key throughout, Darin's version changes key, chromatically, no fewer than five times.

In 1959 “Mack the Knife” was on the Billboard Top Forty charts for twenty five weeks reaching number one for nine of those weeks while it was number six on the Black Singles chart, when songs rarely had that crossover success. It earned Darin two Grammy Awards, for Record of the Year and Best New Artist.

Pop mogul Simon Cowell named "Mack the Knife '' as "the best song ever made" and Frank Sinatra, who also recorded a version of the song, called Darin’s the ‘definitve one’. And in an era when songs over two and one half minutes never got radio airplay "Mack the Knife" is pushing four minutes.

Stay safe and well...and who (of a certain age) doesn’t get a bit nostalgic seeing Dick Clark doing this introduction .

Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear

And it shows them pearly white

Just a jackknife has old MacHeath, babe

And he keeps it, ah, out of sight

You know when that shark bites with his teeth, babe

Scarlet billows start to spread

Fancy gloves, oh, wears old MacHeath, babe

So there's never, never a trace of red

 Now on the sidewalk, huh, huh, whoo sunny morning, un huh

Lies a body just oozin' life, eek

And someone's sneakin' 'round the corner

Could that someone be Mack the Knife?

 There's a tugboat, huh, huh, down by the river don'tcha know

Where a cement bag's just a-drooppin' on down

Oh, that cement is just, it's there for the weight, dear

Five'll get ya ten, old Macky's back in town

Now did ya hear 'bout Louie Miller? He disappeared, babe

After drawin' out all his hard-earned cash

And now MacHeath spends just like a sailor

Could it be our boy's done somethin' rash?

 Now Jenny Diver, ho, ho, yeah, Sukey Tawdry

Ooh, Miss Lotte Lenya and old Lucy Brown

Oh, the line forms on the right, babe

Now that Macky's back in town

 I said Jenny Diver, whoa, Sukey Tawdry

Look out to Miss Lotte Lenya and old Lucy Brown

Yes, that line forms on the right, babe

Now that Macky's back in town

Look out, old Macky's back